Frankie Avalon’s Chicken Thighs with Peas, Sweet Vermouth, and Sherry

Back in college my roommate and I spent an entire afternoon just going through the names of celebrities and debating their “fuckability factor” if you will, We actually made a “dudes we’d do” chart (please remember this was pre-2000. There were no smart phones or streaming. We were bored).

There were your standard folks in the queue (Tom Cruise: no George Clooney: yes) and then we somehow got to Frankie Avalon.

Yes. Frankie Avalon.

Would you do Frankie Avalon? 

You can guess what I am going to say–because I would only remember this if this were the answer–we were in 100% in agreement that Frankie Avalon was a “yes.”

Why? I don’t know. Good hair? Maybe because he was in Grease? (that videocassette was on heavy rotation in our door room–we didn’t even have cable yet–hence the boredom).

While I mull that over, here is a condensed version of a recipe from Frankie that is slated to appear in Jenny Hammerton and Peter Fuller’s upcoming  Vincent Price Co-Star Cookbook. They were kind enough for me to take it for a test spin.

Frankie Avalon’s Chicken Thighs with Peas, Sweet Vermouth, and Sherry

  • 8 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt/salt flakes
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/2 cup / 120ml dry sherry
  • 1/2 cup / 120ml sweet vermouth
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 cup / 150g thawed frozen peas

Season the chicken all over with the salt and pepper.   Brown the chicken in oil. Transfer the chicken to the baking dish.

Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the pan.  Add the onion. Stir in the garlic. Add the sherry and vermouth and bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits in the pan with a wooden spoon.  Pour the mixture over the chicken.

Bake until the chicken shows no sign of pink. 

Combine cornstarch and water.  Stir the cornstarch mixture into the cooking juices in the baking dish, and scatter the peas on top of the chicken.  Bake again. 
This was a pretty successful dish. It didn’t take longer than it was supposed to and tasted good!
I took notes:
  • Very much like chicken marsala but without mushrooms
  • I love a chicken marsala
  • If you switched the peas for mushrooms you could get very close to a marsala without dredging the chicken cutlets in flour.
  • The meat cooked very nicely. Juicy. But I would strain more oil from the frying step–it ended up being a little greasy at the end.
  • The sauce was a little thick/globby, but that was totally my bad—I over measured the cornstarch.
  • This would be better with pasta than rice. Definitely pasta.
  • It needs salt.
But back to Frankie Avalon. Have you ever seen Back to the Beach (1987)?
Confession: in my “research” for this post I rented Back to the Beach for $2.99.
It was on heavy rotation in my house as a kid. It is utterly stupid but entertained the hell out of me and my kid brother.
It stars Frankie and Annette, a pre-college admissions scandal Aunt Becky (actually it’s pre-Aunt Becky Lori Loughlin), Connie Stevens, and a bunch of cameos including Gilligan, OJ Simpson, and Pee-Wee Herman. It’s ridiculous.
Verdict: Frankie got the yes because of Grease.
To play myself out of here, here’s Pee Wee Herman in his completely inexplicable performance from the film.

Published by

4 thoughts on “Frankie Avalon’s Chicken Thighs with Peas, Sweet Vermouth, and Sherry

  1. I sometimes think you’re my sister from another mister. I have seen Back to the Beach about a thousand times! It was often a midday movie in the summer holidays in the 80s/90s in Australia, as was Summer School. But I taped it so I didn’t have to wait. And although I’m 95% lesbian, yes, I would do Frankie Avalon. I think it was the way Frenchie looked at him that did it for me.

  2. The sound of Pee Wee enjoying a magic carpet ride on a surfboard is resounding around my flat in London. That is something I wasn’t expecting to see before 6am on a Wednesday morning. Fabulous. I now have a couple more Pee Wee moves to add into my go-go dance routines.

    Brilliant test report, you are, as always, a star. Don’t forget to claim rental costs for Back to the Beach as a business expense when you do your tax return. Jx

  3. OK, I first read this as Frankie Avalon’s Thighs and clicked a little too fast. Now that you’ve mentioned mushrooms, I want to have mushrooms AND peas with my chicken!

Talk to me!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.