Cooking

I'm a big fan of the Kroger butter chicken sauce. It's gotten pretty expensive so I don't buy it as often as I used to, but I think it's super tasty. I usually throw it together with some mixed frozen vegetables and rotisserie chicken served over rice. It basically takes as long to cook as it takes the rice cooker to finish the rice.

I actually make it myself but a jar of Nam Prik Pao Thai chili paste always for me, kicks noodle stir frying to another level. The best brand I've found is Mae Pranom (popular in Thailand) but often a brand Kasma’s Thai Chili Paste is available in the States.

For broad availability you can't go wrong with Rao's tomato sauce. I just hope Campbell's doesn't mess them up.

So. I tend to not use store bought sauces, can’t give advice on that.

But, if you haven’t considered it, you can reduce your overall work load by making sauces in bulk, and then freezing them. I got myself some giant icecube-molds to freeze into 1/2 cup blocks, and then transfer them to sealed vacuum bags.

Simply thaw and reheat for use. This also works quite well for stocks, or anything that takes hours of simmering.

Not sure if this is quite what you’re looking for, but I like getting the O’food gochujang bottles. They’re convenient cause you can just pop the cap and squirt a little onto whatever you’re making for some fermented spice. Also everything from The Japanese Pantry has been absolutely amazing! I get my soy sauce and sesame oil from them. Siete Enchilada sauces are awesome, I’ll pour half a jar of either the red or green into enchilada/taco soup. Or even simmer some jackfruit in it for tacos.

When I’m feeling lazy, I’ll sometimes mix a jar of Muir Glenn tomato sauce into one of my jars of marinara I make from scratch to double up.

Chili crisp! Goes great on everything. Umami, flavor, and texture bomb. Home made is best, but Fly By Jing is pretty good.

Along similar lines, Chinese god oil. Amazing with noodles, fish, and lots of other things. A cheater version is chili crisp mixed with black vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, green onion, and cilantro.

Great topic, I love reading the other responses too

The Mia Cucina brand sauces are the only jarred tomato sauce allowed in our home. The one with wine mixed in is my preference, but I haven't had one I disliked yet.

I'm a fan of the Steve's and Ed's brand Buffalo sauce, though I'm not sure how it does poured over carbs.

I like to stir fry noodles and dress them with hot pot seasoning and eel sauce, but maybe that's some stoner food shit.

Laoganma's crispy chilli oil 😋

A discovery that changed my life

I tend to make my own sauces. My staple bases are soy (dark and light), oyster, fish and sesame oil.