Jeryl’s Chicken and Rice Casserole

Jeryl was one of my mom’s best friends. I don’t know when exactly they met or how their friendship began, but, I cannot remember a time in my life where Jeryl or Randy (her husband) were not around. When my mom got sick, Jeryl was one of the few people that my dad felt comfortable asking for help. She would come sit with my mom when my dad and I were both unavailable. I still have a few voice mails on my phone that she left from back when everything started going sideways.

Tragically, Jeryl unexpectedly passed away a few months before my mom. I remember my dad calling to tell me the news and I was so shocked that I nearly fell out. By that point my mom was too sick to understand what had happened and all things considered that was probably for the best.

(This was taken in the photobooth at the party that we threw a few months after Danny and I got married. I have no memory of actually taking this set of photos which means that I was likely feeling no pain by this point in the evening. The last photo on the bottom right is further evidence of probable overconsumption.)

There is a file on my mom’s hard drive titled “Jeryl’s recipes” and that is where I found this one titled, “Jeryl’s Chicken and Rice Casserole.” The note on the bottom of this reads:

This is pure comfort food.   Jeryl has shared this casserole with me many times when I have been ill.  It microwaves and freezes well. 

This week I knew that the weather forecast was calling for winter weather. Snow is something that we get so rarely in Wilmington that it shuts down the entire town when it happens. As such, I knew it would be something that would provide lots of leftovers for the week and, honestly, I wanted to do something besides a chili or soup.

Danny snapped this photo of my sous chef helping out in the kitchen. He was really into this recipe because it consists of 2 of his most favorite foods – chicken and rice.

Because I am lazy, I used rotisserie chicken for this instead of cooking my own chicken. I also made it on Sunday afternoon and popped it in the oven on Monday to eat for dinner that night. It made enough for me to eat the entire rest of the week (I still have some leftovers).