Red Chicken Stew

Sumter is famous among lovers of South Carolina food as being the home of the Bradford Watermelon. It also boasts a second distinction, a one pot dish that proved the best alternative to chicken bog for people who did not like their chicken immersed in rice—red chicken stew. It, like chicken bog, could be cooked in the open air for events, but did just as well as a home dinner dish. It was popularized in the early twentieth century by barbecue master Yank Blanding (active 1910–1955), but was probably created earlier by George McKagen, both of Sumter.