Cashew Chicken Stir-Fry

Second vaccine dose on Wednesday. The side effects hit on Thursday — fatigue, body aches, a low fever that made me feel like I'd been run over by a very gentle truck. I spent Thursday in bed, which I never do, which I find intolerable, because lying in bed while Marvin needs care and the students need teaching and the kitchen needs operating is not acceptable behavior for Ruth Feldman. But the body insists. The body said: you have been running for eleven months without a break, and the vaccine has given me permission to make you stop, and you will stop, and you will lie in bed, and Gloria will manage Marvin, and your students will survive one day without Gatsby, and the kitchen will still be there tomorrow. The body was right. The body is always right when it forces you to listen.

I was better by Friday. Fully vaccinated. The card says so — the small white card with the two dates and the lot numbers, the most important piece of paper I have held since my teaching certificate, more important, possibly, than the teaching certificate, because the teaching certificate gave me a career and the vaccine card gives me back my life. I put the card in the drawer with Marvin's Valentine's cards and my mother's recipe cards, because the drawer holds the documents of a life, and this card is a document of survival, and survival goes in the drawer.

Hannah is due any day. Jennifer is in her final weeks, and I am vaccinated, and the question that has been impossible for eleven months is now possible: can I be there? Can I hold the baby? David says yes, carefully, with precautions, but yes. I can hold my grandchild. I can touch a person who is not Marvin. The anticipation is physical — my arms ache with it, the phantom weight of a baby I haven't held yet, the arms remembering what they were built for. I made chicken soup and froze it, because when the baby comes, the family will need soup, and the soup needs to be ready, and I need to be ready, and I am ready. God help me, I am ready.

I had already made and frozen the soup — that was for the baby, for Jennifer, for the first days home — but I needed something for me, for Marvin, for the Friday I stood in my kitchen fully vaccinated and felt, for the first time in eleven months, like the kitchen was mine again. A stir-fry felt right: quick, purposeful, requiring you to stand at the stove and do something with your hands, which is all I ever want to do. This Cashew Chicken Stir-Fry is the meal I made for myself the night my body finally let me back in.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
3/4 cup roasted cashews
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup snap peas, trimmed
3 green onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Cooked white or brown rice, for serving

Instructions

Make the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, and cornstarch until smooth. Set aside.
Cook the chicken. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the chicken pieces in a single layer and cook, undisturbed, for 3–4 minutes. Stir and continue cooking another 2–3 minutes until cooked through and lightly golden. Transfer to a plate.
Stir-fry the vegetables. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan. Add the bell pepper and snap peas and stir-fry for 2–3 minutes until just tender-crisp. Add the garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes (if using) and stir for 30 seconds until fragrant.
Combine and finish. Return the chicken to the pan and pour the sauce over everything. Toss well to coat and cook for 1–2 minutes until the sauce thickens and everything is glossy. Remove from heat and stir in the cashews and green onions.
Serve. Spoon over steamed rice and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cashew Chicken Stir-Fry — Made Ahead for the Baby I’m Finally Ready to Hold