Chicken Blog

So you know how I wanted some Crawfish the other day? Well after talking to some locals I found out that apparently this part of the world isn't much of a fan of those tasty little mud-bugs. So it got me thinking, what do they like? Around these parts if you ask a local what their favorite meal is you get two answers, BBQ and Chicken Bog. Everyone has heard of BBQ so that is not so surprising though for someone who grew up on Memphis style BBQ, it is incredibly hard for me to consider Carolina BBQ as anything more than cat food and pickle juice. I'll have to save that story for another day, getting back to the other SC staple CHICKEN BOG.

Chicken Bog according what I've found online and what i hear from the locals was started right here in the Pee Dee region of SC. Chicken Bog in essence is a fairly simple dish consisting of chicken, onions, rice, butter, salt, and pepper. Now the fun thing about Chicken Bog is everyone has their "own" variations that can include adding sausage, bacon, bell peppers,and carrots. There seems to be only 2 rules to making your "signature" Chicken bog those are, Don't call it Chicken and Rice and don't spice it up to much. I might have a problem with the spices, learning how to cook at Ole Miss we had our share of Cajun influences. Now i have to be honest, I have actually never tasted any local Chicken Bog but Shannon seems to get it at least every couple of weeks at work. So with her as my taste tester I decided to give it a whirl.

Jordon's Chicken Bog
* 1 whole chicken
* 1 Bag of med grain rice
* Lowerys Season salt.
* 2 small onions
* Large pot and lots of water

Basically its really simple all I did was poke a few small holes in the skin of the chicken and rub the meat with some seasoned salt. Then i placed my bird in a hot bath and brought it up to a boil which created a rich broth. I continued to let the chicken cook for about an hour until the meat was at 180*



Once the chicken was cooked I took it out of the water and set it aside to let it cool off for a bit then because i didn't measure how much water I had put in the pot the first time i actually transferred the "broth" into another pot. Then I chopped up my onions and put them in the emptied stock pot with a little butter just to get them going. After the onions cooked for just a bit i started to measure out the "broth". I added 14 cups of broth and using the 2:1 ratio I added 7 cups of rice.



While the rice was coming to a boil, Shannon started getting the chicken ready. After removing any remaining skin and fat, she simply had to lift the bones right out of the meat. After tearing it into bite size pieces we added it to the rice mixture gave it a quick stir and walked away for about 25-30 and bada bing bada boom we had Chicken Bog.



I have to say, I was very hesitant to try this SC "feel good" meal based off my past experiences with SC BBQ but I have to say. Chicken Bog you sure are mighty tasty. Shannon gave it a clean plate stamp of approval, she did say that the version she eats at work is slightly different in its texture but she actually preferred this version. I apparently also got 2 thumbs up from the Dulaney Crew (my awesome neighbors). So all in all its pretty good, I did end up cheating and adding some Zatarans Blackened Seasoning to mine, but if i were out in public and had to eat it plain that would be okay to. Well that's about it for my chicken bog experience hope you guys enjoyed and will try it if you haven't yet. Other than that remember help control the pet population and have you pet spayed or neutered.