Quick and Easy Chinese Chicken and Broccoli

The news came on a Tuesday. Mama's follow-up scan. The tumor that was shrinking — the one that gave us Thanksgiving and Christmas and my birthday and a fried chicken class where my mother glowed — has metastasized to her liver. The oncologist said it gently, the way doctors learn to deliver information that will rearrange the furniture of your life. "The cancer has spread." Four words. The room tilted. Curtis reached for Mama's hand. Mama reached for mine. We were a chain of hands, holding on to each other in a room that smelled like antiseptic and dread.

I don't remember driving home. I remember sitting in the townhouse driveway for forty-five minutes, engine off, staring at the steering wheel. I remember Marcus opening the front door and yelling, "Mama, are you coming in?" I remember walking inside and making dinner — chicken stir-fry, something fast, something that kept my hands busy — and serving it to my children and smiling and asking about their day and being a mother because that is what you do when the world is ending. You make stir-fry. You ask about homework. You keep the table set.

I didn't cry until midnight. Then I cried for two hours. I sat on the bathroom floor with the door locked and the faucet running so the kids wouldn't hear, and I cried the way you cry when you know something is coming and you can't stop it and all your love and all your cooking and all your prayers can't change the biology that is taking your mother from you. I cried until my face hurt. Then I washed my face and went to bed and got up at five-thirty and made grits and started again.

The plan: more aggressive chemotherapy. Different drugs. A new protocol. The oncologist was cautiously — there's that word again, cautiously — hopeful. Mama looked at me and said, "We're not done, baby." I said, "No ma'am, we are not." And I meant it. And I was terrified. And I went home and cooked dinner because that's what I do when I'm terrified — I cook. I feed. I set the table. I hold the line.

I haven't told the kids yet. I will. I have to. But not today. Today they eat stir-fry and do homework and believe that grandma's chemo is "going good" because that's what I told them, and it was true two weeks ago, and I need it to be true for a few more days while I figure out how to explain metastasis to an eleven-year-old and a nine-year-old who think their grandmother is invincible. She is. She IS. She just doesn't know it in her liver.

That night, stir-fry was the only answer I had—fast, loud in the pan, something I could control when everything else felt like it was slipping. The kids needed dinner and I needed my hands busy and twenty-five minutes to believe, just for a minute, that I could fix something. This Chinese chicken and broccoli is what I made: simple, fast, and good enough to make two children forget, for one meal, that anything in the world was wrong. Here’s how I put it together.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 25 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced thin against the grain
4 cups broccoli florets (about 1 large head)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
Cooked white rice, for serving
Sesame seeds and sliced green onions, for garnish

Instructions

Make the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, cornstarch, sesame oil, brown sugar, and chicken broth until smooth. Set aside.
Blanch the broccoli. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add broccoli florets and cook for 90 seconds, just until bright green and barely tender. Drain and set aside.
Sear the chicken. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat until shimmering. Add the chicken in a single layer — work in batches if needed — and cook without stirring for 2 minutes. Flip and cook another 1 to 2 minutes until cooked through and lightly golden. Transfer to a plate.
Build the stir-fry. Reduce heat to medium-high. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan. Add garlic and ginger and stir constantly for 30 seconds until fragrant.
Finish the dish. Return the chicken and broccoli to the pan. Give the sauce a quick stir and pour it over everything. Toss to coat and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring, until the sauce thickens and clings to the chicken and broccoli. Add red pepper flakes if using.
Serve. Spoon over steamed white rice. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onions.

Nutrition (per serving)

Quick and Easy Chinese Chicken and Broccoli — When You Cook Because You Have To