Chicken Tikka Masala is probably the best known of all Indian restaurant dishes and one of the most beloved. A secret about this creamy tomato-flavored sauce: It’s not a traditional Indian dish at all. Tikka masala was created in a London restaurant by an Indian chef who wanted to meld in South Asian flavors with western sauce ingredients in order to appeal to English audiences. The end result is this sauce that features both garam masala and ginger and tomato paste and heavy cream. This is a great simmer sauce to make ahead and keep in the refrigerator for a quick Indian-inspired meal. It’s equally good with chickpeas, lentils, boneless chicken, fish or shrimp. Simply cook your main ingredient, and then add it to the tikka masala sauce and simmer together for 20 minutes to combine the flavors. One of our favorite, easy preparations is to cube chicken breast and season them with garam masala, ginger and tandoori seasoning, which is now widely available in the spice aisle of grocery stores. We bake the pieces in the oven or grill them and add to the tikka masala sauce. Fenugreek leaves add an authentic flavor to this dish but if you can’t find it feel free to omit or simply garnish your finished dish with parsley or cilantro leaves.

This sauce is the basis of the Persian dish Fesanjan that combines the flavors of toasted walnuts and pomegranate in a thick, aromatic sauce for chicken. Traditionally, fesanjan is a special occasion dish and was originally made with wild duck. It is a popular dish for Iranian Jews during Passover. Because this sauce is both hearty and complex in flavor, we find that it’s not only good on chicken or duck, but can work well with other game birds like pheasant or quail too. This dish calls for pomegranate juice, which is readily available in most grocery stores, but also pomegranate molasses, which can be called pomegranate syrup. This is available in Middle Eastern grocery stores and is a necessary ingredient that shouldn’t be omitted.

Everyone loves a good gravy, yet it seems to be one of those basic preparations that elude many cooks. The key is to approach gravy as a roux-thickened sauce. While pan drippings definitely make for a nice gravy, using chicken stock ensures that the proportions of cooking liquid to fat are easily controlled. For gravies using pan drippings—say from a roast turkey or chicken—use an oil separating cup to remove most of the fat from the drippings or your gravy will be too greasy. Reserve some of the cooking fat to make your roux—about 3 tablespoons (45 ml) worth—and discard the rest. We use a pinch of ground sage, a classic poultry spice, to flavor this poultry gravy along with thyme and celery salt so that the gravy is richly flavored and truly adds pizzazz to the meat. This gravy recipe can be doubled or tripled depending on the size of your bird or your available drippings.

This is our alternative to traditional cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. Orange and cranberry are a match made in culinary heaven and roasting the orange slices adds a caramel flavor that mellows the sauce. We like to sweeten this sauce with honey to temper the tartness of the cranberries. Cara Cara oranges are our favorite because they are delightfully sweet and aromatic. If you can’t get Cara Cara oranges, a navel orange will do just fine. A small bit of cayenne pepper adds the slightest bit of heat and dimension to this sauce, but if you don’t like it you can omit it. Cranberries naturally have a lot of pectin, which makes for a lovely thick sauce. We prefer ours chunky but you can certainly purée the finished sauce while it is still hot and then strain through a fine mesh sieve so that the resulting, cooled sauce will actually be a sliceable jelly.

This is an exotic sauce that is simple to make. Soursop is a tropical fruit found in Central and South America and the Caribbean. It has a naturally sweet and sour flavor profile and a milky white consistency when puréed. Called guanabana in Spanish, soursop is often used in fruit shakes and ice creams. You can find frozen puréed soursop in the freezer section of Caribbean and Spanish markets or, often, in the Latino foods section of traditional supermarkets. We like to use this sauce as a substitute for traditional Chinese sweet and sour sauces in chicken and vegetable stir-fry.

This classic southern barbecue sauce is used as a condiment for grilled food rather than an on-grill flavoring. Easy to make, we use ours on everything from pulled pork sandwiches to roasted potatoes or grilled veggies. Whole grain mustard adds texture and bite to the creamy mayonnaise, which is made piquant by the addition of both garlic and horseradish. It’s most delicious on barbecued chicken, and we particularly like to brush finished chicken kebabs with this sauce. You can make this sauce ahead and keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Although avocado is mostly used in dips and salads in the United States, it makes its appearance in sauces, soups and even stews in regions where it grows. When gently warmed, this creamy, garlicky sauce with a hint of heat is excellent on grilled chicken or fish, and it is equally good as a condiment for burgers. The sauce may be served cold and do double duty as a dip or salad dressing. You will want to thin the sauce slightly if using warm. If using as a salad dressing, add enough water to achieve an easily pourable consistency and cut the chipotle pepper in half or omit it altogether.

We enjoy making this in the winter, when tangerines are at their ripest, and we need a touch of brightness to combat the winter blues. We use this tangy, spicy vinaigrette on salads, grilled mushrooms, roasted beets or over a salad of shaved fennel and arugula

This is an incredibly versatile sauce that we have used for everything from firm white fish, shellfish, chicken or pork, or even as the basis of a stew with chickpeas or on grilled eggplant. This tangy, aromatic sauce that is tempered with a bit of sugar and coconut milk also has some kick thanks to the jalapeño pepper. Feel free to reduce or increase the amount of pepper to your individual taste. The same is true of the sugar in this recipe—you may find you like your sauce a little less tangy so add sweetness accordingly.

Indian food lovers will recognize this simmer sauce as korma, a well flavored and creamy nut-based sauce that can be made with almonds or cashews. Garam masala is the basis for the classic Indian flavor as are the high notes of cardamom, which is almost minty in taste. While you can process your own cashews into a butter or paste very easily, there are so many jarred cashew butters on the market it’s often easier to use one of these preparations. We call for cream in this sauce, but it can also be made with coconut cream, and it’s just as good. While this sauce is most classically used as a simmer sauce for chunks of boneless chicken, it is also excellent for mixed vegetables or pieces of firm fish like swordfish or catfish too.