{"id":8673,"date":"2025-10-16T11:20:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/?p=8673"},"modified":"2025-10-16T11:30:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:30:03","slug":"sonnys-pollo-bono-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/2025\/10\/sonnys-pollo-bono-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonny’s Pollo Bono Recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>So let me just say to begin that being a Cher fan is incredibly fun. One week I can be writing about doll outfits (I have another doozy of an eBay doll story coming up) or food recipes or beauty and fashion ideas or makeup-head toys or teen magazine advice columns or memoirs or music or movies or TV shows…or creative things fans do like making little wooden Bulto-like wooden carvings of Cher’s outfits. It’s a grab-bag of fun.<\/p>\n

And lately, as I’ve been doing the Cher food stuff, (which is quite an amazing mashup of obsessions, to be honest), I’ve been thinking about who could possibly care about this stuff but Cher fans, and maybe even who cares among<\/em> Cher fans really…about all this minutia. I mean, who is really out there taking this crazy journey with me? Is this just more and more internet self-absorption?<\/p>\n

But then I get a letter. And I’m like\u00a0oh my God.<\/em> Yesterday I received this email below from someone who is not a Cher fan at all but found something I had posted.<\/p>\n

I asked her if I could share her letter on my blog and she said yes. First let me say this story has echoes of Cher’s own story about her sister finding their mom’s beloved cheesecake recipe in a stack of papers after Georgia died. (I made that recipe a few weeks ago<\/a> and it was a big smash. And, aside from Shoofly Pie, the only other pie I’ve ever made.)<\/p>\n

“Hi Cher Scholar,<\/em><\/p>\n

I stumbled across your website this evening while I was searching for an old recipe my mom used to make frequently while I was growing up. It was titled \u201cPollo Bono\u201d in my mom\u2019s hand-typed and laminated binder of recipes, which I always thought was a misspelling of \u201cPollo Buono\u201d. However, searching the phrase \u201cpollo buono\u201d didn\u2019t return any comparable dishes, so I tried a search inquiry using the original spelling.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lo and behold, the first result was your site! Specifically, the page wherein you compiled some of Sonny Bono\u2019s old recipes, with Pollo Bono being among them: <\/em>https:\/\/www.cherscholar.com\/sonny-bono-recipes\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

It was just how I remember: lightly breaded chicken breast in an herby sauce, topped with tomato and onion that come to life under the broiler for a fantastic, rustic finish. I\u2019m not sure how my mom had stumbled across the recipe all those years ago. It would have been the late 90s, possibly even earlier, when she added it to her regular recipe rotation. She was never one for magazines or pop culture, but I suppose it\u2019s not unthinkable that at some point, she\u2019d gotten her hands on that February 1990 issue of <\/em>Woman\u2019s Day Magazine mentioned on the page and found the recipe interesting enough to keep.<\/em><\/p>\n

I had this dish at least once a month growing up, but the recipe was lost years ago amongst my parent\u2019s divorce, a family fallout, and several moves. I\u2019m now almost 30 and married to a home chef (for whom I thank my lucky stars everyday!) who has kindly agreed to recreate the recipe for me someday soon, though of course he insists on putting his own twist on it. Whether his version will measure up to my nostalgia remains to be seen!<\/em><\/p>\n

In addition to sharing my fun discovery, I wanted to thank you for maintaining this site and keeping it free to the world. Accessible information archives are a rapidly deteriorating resource in the age of paywalls and internet regulation. Your efforts are commendable and very, very much appreciated!<\/em><\/p>\n

Sincerely,
\n<\/em>Kara from Pittsburgh”<\/em><\/p>\n

I told her I was so happy this recipe was making its way in the world though and I asked her what other recipes her mom made.<\/p>\n

“There were a couple of other Italian dishes in the rotation, like veal parmesan and lasagna, but my mom\u2019s specialty has always been southern comfort cooking. She\u2019d make a great chicken and dumplings dish that I\u2019ve never been able to recreate.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad to leave the cooking to my husband most days, but I do wish from time to time that I could have those childhood favorites again. I\u2019ve only been able to find a handful of the original recipes online. I\u2019m really glad the Pollo Bono ended up being one of them!”<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And speaking of food, I finished my exploration of the recipes in Forever Fit<\/em> (with the second and last spaghetti sauce recipe<\/a>) and I made the spicy shrimp fried rice<\/a> in Cooking for Cher<\/em> this week.<\/p>\n\n\t\t