The "Chicken bog" is a deeply beloved dish unique to South Carolina. While cuisines worldwide add ingredients to rice to create a one-pan meal — paella and jambalaya are just a couple of conspicuous examples — South Carolina has a particularly long history of rice production.

Rice has been one of the state's main crops since the 18th century, as South Carolina was one of the few states to consume the grain prior to the Civil War. In the city of Charleston, food traditions reflect the Carolina coast's rich and complicated history, which depended on enslaved Black people's labor for its rice production and also absorbed French and Caribbean influences.

A chicken bog consists of whole, boiled chicken, the broth of which is used to cook Carolina long-grain rice, and after that, sausage is added. There are two theories about where the name came from, one citing the marshy, “boggy” part of the state called Horry County (per Discover South Carolina), where the dish is most popular.

The other theory is that the term stems from the moist nature of the rice itself, which is "bogged down" in warm, brothy goodness. Either way, it's a savory treat you'll need to travel to the South to find — which makes it all the more special to the people of South Carolina.