Local chef Larry Dickerson reveals his secrets to cooking the perfect chicken bog

Jason Lee
·4 min read
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This locally famous one-pot dish of chicken, sausage and rice has been a staple of the Horry County community for at least a century.

The City of Loris, S.C. even has a fall festival called the ‘Bog Off’ in the dish’s honor that draws thousands from around the region to sample the delicacy.

Chicken Bog is often featured as a ‘special’ on the menus of local ‘meat n three’ restaurants around the Myrtle Beach area.

But the mention of ‘Chicken Bog’ to any non-local is sure to draw quizzical looks.

What exactly is ‘Chicken Bog’?

Chicken bog is a deceptively simple one-pot dish of chicken, rice and sausage cooked in the chicken’s broth to a “boggy” consistency.

An inscription on a new plaque to be revealed at the Horry County Library in Loris describes it as: “ONE-POT DISH MADE WITH RICE,CHICKEN & SAUSAGE. FED CROWDS BY 1920S. TRADITIONALLY EATEN AFTER GATHERING TOBACCO IN NORTHEAST SOUTH CAROLINA,”

While a cousin of the more well-known perlo — , chicken bog tends to be served a bit moister than perlo, and some speculate its name derives from the low lying wetlands where the meal originated.

How to get it right?

Chicken bog is said to be ‘deceptively simple’ because while many locals can manage to make a satisfyingly edible ‘bog,’ getting the rice to cook to the right consistency, picking the most flavorful combination of chicken meat, sausage and seasoning, and cooking it all without scorching the rice at the bottom, can take years of practice and experience.

The right pot matters. The type of rice matters. Even the type of heat matters. Timing is everything.

What’s the secret? Ask a local chicken bog expert.

Larry Dickerson with his daughter Marley Crotts, co-owners of Donzelle’s Restaurant in Conway, S.C. January 25, 2023.
Larry Dickerson with his daughter Marley Crotts, co-owners of Donzelle’s Restaurant in Conway, S.C. January 25, 2023.

Larry Dickerson, owner and chief chicken bog cook at Donzelle’s Restaurant in Conway, S.C. has been cooking this dish for 48 years, both at his Main Street restaurant and catering to large community gatherings..

He says he once cooked his famous recipe for 800 people at a Coastal Carolina University event.

Like many southern chefs, Dickerson can’t give specific measurements because he never uses a measuring cup, preferring to “eyeball’ the ingredients based on the size of his pots and the crowd he plans to serve.

Here’s the basic breakdown of how to cook Dickerson’s chicken bog:

Ingredients:

  • Thick-walled cook pot with lid.

  • Boneless chicken thy meat or leg quarters. (“Dark meat’s got a better flavor than white meat. You got to have the fat to make it good.”)

  • Long-grained rice.

  • Smoked all beef sausage. (“The better the sausage the better the bog.”)

  • Salt and pepper seasoning.

  • Chicken broth retained from boiling.

Steps:

  1. Boil and season chicken to taste. (“The key to a good chicken bog is taste. You’ve got to taste it.”)

  2. Pre-heat over to 350F.

  3. Add sausage to pot and bring it to a boil.

  4. Pour rice in center of boiling broth until it “mounds” a few inches above broth.

  5. Move rice around with spoon to evenly distribute. Do NOT stir. “Then just pour a little more in there.” The rice should now be distributed an inch or so below the level of broth.

  6. Bring pot to rapid boil continuing to gently lift rice from bottom and sides of pot until broth is “about half-way boiled out of it. When you can see the rice dry out - when you can see the rice getting flufflier - that’s when you need to put the lid on it and put it in the oven.”)

  7. Move rice around once more gently lifting from bottom and sides of pot (“DON’T stir it!”) Put lid on pot and put it in pre-heated oven.

  8. Cook in oven for 30 minutes. (“What that heat does, it surrounds that pot. It won’t cook from the bottom it will cook from all sides and that’s what makes a better chicken bog.”)

  9. Turn oven off and leave pot in oven to rest for a while before serving.

A pot of chicken bog cooked by Conway, S.C. chef Larry Dickerson is removed from the oven of Donzelle’s restaurant. January 25, 2022.
A pot of chicken bog cooked by Conway, S.C. chef Larry Dickerson is removed from the oven of Donzelle’s restaurant. January 25, 2022.

“It’s hit and miss,” Dickerson says. “A lot of people have tried. Many people have failed but if you don’t continue to learn how to do it, you know, you’ll never do it.”

Getting closer to Dickerson’s level of perfection may take time but to jump-start, the quest for the perfect chicken bog, be sure to watch his step-by-step instructions in the above video.