LORIS, S.C. — While crowds of 30,000-40,000 people flock to Loris for its annual “Chicken Bog-Off” festival every third weekend of October to enjoy the savory rice, chicken and sausage-based one-pot dish, few may know when or how the cuisine was created and why it has sustained such popularity throughout Horry County.
Originated by enslaved workers during the plantation era in the 1800s as a means of feeding large groups of people, the chicken bog tradition involved simmering ingredients in an iron cauldron over an open fire.
An early recipe shared by Dr. David Shields, Co-Host of “The Savers of Flavor,” co-author of “Taste the State” and Carolina Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of South Carolina, documented that, “A very big pot filled with 400 pounds of chicken, 150 pounds of good pork sausage and 100 pounds of rice will feed at least 1,000 people.”
As further evidenced by executive chef and author Eric Spiner, plantation owner Captain Henry Buck allowed his enslaved people to plant their own vegetables and raise their own livestock such as chickens, goats and pigs…