Coco’s Smoked Chicken Salad

Not long after I met Coco, we were on a date and CeeLo Green came on the iPod singing “Fool for You.” We both liked the song so much that we just played it over and over. One day in the restaurant, I put that song on while she was walking through. She immediately stopped and just started dancing. I love it when she does that. From the start, I always wanted Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ to be a family restaurant—not just welcoming for families as guests, but reflecting the warmth and fun you get at family gatherings. Part of that for me meant putting the names of family members on the menu so that even when they weren’t in the restaurant, they’d be there with me. Coco’s Smoked Chicken Salad has a nice ring to it—I like the way it sounds. Plus my wife loves making egg salad, so I thought it wasn’t much of a stretch to put her name on this dish—especially one that is, to me, one of the best things you can eat. When I’m cooking at home, sometimes I’ll even put extra chicken on the pit hoping for leftovers so I can make it into salad. When I told her about her namesake, she gave me one of those trademark Coco looks like I was out of my mind. But we went ahead with it, and she hasn’t complained. — Rodney Scott

Reprinted with permission from Rodney Scott's World of BBQ: Every Day is a Good Day by Rodney Scott and Lolis Eric ElieCopyright © 2021 by Rodney Scott’s BBQ, LLC, a South Carolina limited liability company. Photographs copyright © 2021 by Jerrelle Guy. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House.