Chicken Bog
intro
A hearty one-pot comfort classic from South Carolina’s Lowcountry, loaded with tender chicken, smoky sausage, and savory seasoned rice for cozy family meals.
Ingredients
Steps
Sear chicken and sausage
Melt 28g (2 tbsp) unsalted butter in a heavy-bottomed 5-quart Dutch oven over medium heat (350°F/175°C stovetop). Add sliced smoked sausage in a single layer, cook 3 minutes per side until browned and crisp at the edges, then transfer to a clean plate. Add chicken thighs skin-side down to the pot, cook 4 minutes per side until golden brown on both surfaces, then transfer to the plate with sausage.
Sauté the aromatics
In the same pot with remaining rendered fat from the meats, add diced onion and celery, cook over medium heat for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent. Add minced garlic, dried thyme, salt, and pepper, cook 30 seconds more until fragrant, stirring constantly to avoid burning the garlic.
Simmer chicken in broth
Return seared chicken thighs to the pot, pour in 960ml (4 cups) low-sodium chicken broth, and add the whole bay leaf. Bring the liquid to a rolling boil over medium-high heat (about 4 minutes), then reduce heat to low (200°F/95°C), cover, and simmer for 18 minutes until chicken is cooked through and tender (internal temperature 165°F/74°C).
Shred cooked chicken
Use tongs to carefully remove cooked chicken thighs from the pot, transfer to a wooden cutting board, and let rest for 4 minutes until cool enough to handle. Discard chicken skin and bones, then shred the meat into 1-inch bite-sized pieces using two forks; set aside. Fish out and discard the bay leaf from the remaining broth mixture.
Cook rice in broth
Stir 360g (2 cups) rinsed uncooked long-grain white rice into the simmering broth and aromatic mixture, stirring once to ensure no rice sticks to the pot bottom. Bring the liquid back to a gentle boil over medium heat (about 2 minutes), then reduce heat to the lowest stovetop setting, cover tightly with a lid, and cook for 15 minutes without lifting the lid to ensure even cooking.
Fold in meats and rest
After 15 minutes of rice cooking, turn off the heat, remove the lid, and fluff the rice gently with a fork to separate grains. Fold in the reserved browned sausage and shredded chicken, mixing evenly to distribute the meats through the rice. Replace the lid and let the dish rest, completely off heat, for 10 minutes to allow flavors to meld and any remaining liquid to fully absorb before serving.
Tips
2.Never lift the Dutch oven lid while the rice cooks, as trapped steam is required to cook rice evenly; lifting the lid releases steam and can lead to crunchy, undercooked or mushy rice.
3.For a traditional regional twist, add 75g (1/2 cup) diced smoked bacon along with the sausage, or swap regular smoked sausage for spicy andouille for a gentle, smoky heat.
OMG this chicken bog is SO good! I made it for our Sunday family dinner after church and everyone went back for seconds, even my super picky 8 year old who turns his nose up at almost everything. I used smoked sausage from the local butcher shop instead of the regular kielbasa and it added such a nice depth, 10/10 will be making this for our next neighborhood potluck too!
Game changer for weekday meal prep! This was so easy to throw together on a Sunday afternoon, I portioned it out into 5 containers and it held up perfectly all week for work lunches. The rice didn’t get mushy at all, which is usually my biggest complaint with one-pot rice dishes. Only tweak I made was adding a little extra Cajun seasoning for a tiny kick, otherwise followed the recipe exactly. 10/10, will be on repeat.
I was so nervous to make chicken bog because I’d never even heard of it before stumbling on this recipe, but it was way easier than I expected! I’m a total beginner cook and the steps were super straightforward, no fancy skills or equipment needed. Mine came out a little soupier than the photos looked but it was still delicious, I think I just poured a touch too much chicken broth by accident. Will definitely measure more carefully when I make it again!
Made this while we were vacationing near Myrtle Beach last week and it felt like the perfect coastal dinner! We ate it out on the rental house porch with coleslaw and hushpuppies on the side, my kids devoured it before I could even get a second helping. It tasted just like the chicken bog we got at that tiny seafood shack we visited on our last trip down south. So cozy and flavorful, not heavy at all. Will be a regular in our dinner rotation even when we’re back home upstate!
Took this to our annual fall football tailgate last weekend and people were practically begging me for the recipe! I doubled the batch since I knew there’d be a big crowd, and it kept warm in the slow cooker for hours no problem. The only swap I made was using brown rice instead of white because that’s what we had in the pantry, and it still turned out great — I just added 15 minutes of extra cook time to let the rice soften all the way. Will absolutely be making this for game days all season long!