By The therapy milestone: two years of consistent sessions with Dr. Tran. She asked me to assess my progress, and I said: "I sleep better. I listen for water less. The Katrina room is still there but it's smaller. I don't make gumbo at 2 AM as often." She said, "And?" I said, "And I'm not ashamed of needing help anymore." She smiled. "That's the big one, Tommy." It is. It's the biggest roux I've ever made. The roux of admitting that a man who fixes things for a living needed someone to help fix him. And the fixing isn't fixing — it's maintaining. The way the cottage needs maintaining. The way the pit needs patching. The way everything worth keeping needs someone to tend it. Dr. Tran tends me. The stove tends me. Danielle tends me. I tend the family. The family tends the food. The food tends the memory. And the memory tends the future. It's a circle. It's always a circle.
Made a simple grilled chicken and rice. Nothing fancy. Nothing journal-worthy. Just: Tuesday. Just: the family at the table and the chicken on the plate and the rice underneath and the silence that isn't empty but full — full of five years of Tuesdays, of gumbo and grief and growth, of a man learning to sleep and a boy learning to cook and a woman holding everything together and a cottage on a bayou that still stands. Tuesday, cher. The most beautiful day of the week.
Tuesday doesn’t ask much of you, and I’ve learned not to ask much of Tuesday either — that’s the whole secret. After two years of Dr. Tran and all the growing that comes with it, the most honest thing I can offer this family is dinner on the table without ceremony, and this Instant Pot chicken and broccoli over rice is exactly that: fast, warm, and whole. It’s not gumbo. It doesn’t need to be.
Instant Pot Chicken and Broccoli
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 3 cups broccoli florets
- 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 2 cups cooked white rice, for serving
- Sesame seeds and sliced green onions, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Make the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, chicken broth, honey, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil until combined.
- Load the pot. Place the chicken chunks in the Instant Pot and pour the sauce over top. Stir gently to coat all the pieces.
- Pressure cook. Seal the Instant Pot lid, set the valve to sealing, and cook on High Pressure for 8 minutes. Once done, carefully perform a quick pressure release.
- Thicken the sauce. Switch the Instant Pot to Sauté mode. Whisk the cornstarch and cold water together in a small bowl, then stir the slurry into the pot. Let it simmer for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until the sauce thickens and coats the chicken.
- Steam the broccoli. Add the broccoli florets directly to the pot, stirring them into the sauce. Cook on Sauté for another 2–3 minutes until the broccoli is bright green and tender-crisp.
- Serve. Spoon over cooked white rice and garnish with sesame seeds and green onions if you like. Put it on the table. Sit down. That’s it.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 310 | Protein: 40g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 22g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 780mg