Chicken Bog

From A Love Affair with Southern Cooking by Jean Anderson (William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2007). Copyright 2007 by Jean Anderson.

Makes 8 servings

In The Carolina Rice Kitchen: The African Connection (1992), food historian Karen Hess suggests that chicken bog may have descended from la soupe courte of Provence, "an ancient festival dish, calling for mutton, petit sale or other cured pork, onions, aromatics, saffron, and rice." It is, she continues, "not a soup but a very thick stew or a rather wet pilau." Her theory is that with the deletion of saffron and substitution of chicken for mutton, a new dish emerged.

As for the recipe's unusual name, some say that "bog" comes from the fact that rice is grown in bogs, others that the chicken is "bogged down" in the rice, and still others that the dish is just a "soggy, boggy mess."

Note: Some modern cooks shortcut chicken bog by using chicken parts and canned broth. The recipe here is fairly classic.

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 pound spicy country sausage links or chorizo, sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 large green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped
• 2 1/2 cups converted rice
• 6 cups rich chicken stock or broth
• 5 cups large-ish chunks of cooked chicken plus the coarsely chopped giblets
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste.

1. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over moderately high heat for 2 minutes. Add the sausage and cook for 5 minutes or until nicely browned. Using a slotted spoon, lift the browned sausage to a plate and reserve.

2. Add the onion and bell pepper to the sausage drippings and stir-fry for 8 to 10 minutes or until limp and lightly browned.

3. Add the rice and cook and stir for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock, chicken, giblets, reserved sausage, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat so the mixture bubbles gently, cover, and cook for 20 minutes, stirring often, or just until the rice is tender. If the bog seems soupy, cook, uncovered, for 5 to 10 minutes more. It should be about the consistency of a soft risotto. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust as needed.

4. Ladle into big soup bowls, and serve with butter beans, and red-ripe tomatoes.

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