The Loris Bog-Off Photo Shoot

[BrentKulman]

From my previous post on this topic, it is apparent that few of you are familiar with chicken bog, the rice pilau specialty of the Pee Dee River region of South Carolina. This past weekend, I attended the 25th annual Loris Bog-Off, the region's chicken bog festival. The highlight of the festival was the chicken bog competition, featuring 20 different versions of chicken bog.

Here are some photos of the event:

Chicken bog is a jamalaya-like combination of rice, chicken and spices. The dish is generally mildly seasoned, although some variants can be quite spicy. As you can see from the photos below, there are a variety of other meat ingredients which can appear in the bog - sliced sausage, bbq turkey, ham hocks, sausage links and bbq pork. Onions tend to be the only vegetable, although one bog did include a bit of green pepper. Sometimes the rice is light and fluffy and other times it can be moist and creamy. The trick is to keep the rice from becoming mushy or to have the whole dish dry out. Fortunately, most of the contestants avoided either fate.

Here are a few white rice bogs, the first of which is what I would consider the classic recipe:

Here are some appealing yellow rice bogs:

And, here are some dirty rice bogs, a variation that I suspect has some influence from Louisiana:

[MollyBGoodwin]

How great!! I'm from Sumter and my folks always called it perlow. We kept it simple- either chicken, black pepper, and onions, or okra and onions.

Love it and it's the quickest way I know to get as fat as a house.

[bloviatrix]

Those photos look amazing.

Would someone be willing to point this northeasterner to recipes for chicken bog? I want to try to make it at home -- it looks like a great dinner for a cold night.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Those photos look amazing.

Would someone be willing to point this northeasterner to recipes for chicken bog?  I want to try to make it at home -- it looks like a great dinner for a cold night.

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Sure thing, bloviatrix, right here, just think "chicken cholent" and skip the bacon grease and make the chicken a kosher pullet ...

or then there is the upscale chicken bog from the NYT:

here

[bloviatrix]

Thanks GG. I'm going to have to try it. Now I need to pick up rice (we only have basmati in the house). It really sounds like comfort food.

[wcmckinney]

These looks stellar Brent...Which one would you say is your favorite?

Secondly, I am not familiar with any chicken bog shacks like one might have BBQ shacks. Would you concur? I have seen chicken bog on numberous BBQ buffets for that matter, but it doesn't seem to stand alone very much.

On the topic of bog recipes: Charleston Receipts has a terrific recipe that calls for using a "mean old rooster" as the center piece of the dish...

[BrentKulman]

These looks stellar Brent...Which one would you say is your favorite?

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I was partial to the two dirty rice versions. The one on the bottom came in two varieties, mild and spicy. Even though chicken bog is not traditionally a spicy dish, I enjoyed it with a bit of heat.

Secondly, I am not familiar with any chicken bog shacks like one might have BBQ shacks.  Would you concur?  I have seen chicken bog on numberous BBQ buffets for that matter, but it doesn't seem to stand alone very much.

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I have only seen it on buffet menus in and around Florence, SC where it is ubiquitous. Most of the BBQ shacks in that area use a buffet format which includes hash and chicken bog among the dishes.

[lovebenton0]

Great photos, Brent! Now I want one of each color -- but may need to start with a dirty bog, and work my way clean.

Was that last dirty bog in a huge pressure cooker?

[BrentKulman]

Was that last dirty bog in a huge pressure cooker?

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I don't really know the answer to that question. The bogs were all cooked by the time I arrived so I just assumed that the chefs used the biggest pots they could find.