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Home Chef Subscription Box Review + Coupon – April 2016

Lindsey Morse
ByLindsey MorseJul 25, 2016 | 12 comments

HomeChef-April-2016-Box

Home Chef
4 overall rating
26 Ratings | 14 Reviews

Home Chef is a subscription meal delivery service that sends a weekly box of “perfectly portioned, premium ingredients, spices & sauces, and easy, step-by-step recipes.”

Boxes contain “fresh ingredients” and “chef-designed, restaurant-quality” recipes.

Check out all of our reviews of Meal Delivery Services to see every meal kit subscription box option!

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You can skip a week whenever you like.

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

HomeChef-April-2016-Open

The Subscription Box: Home Chef

The Cost: Meals start at $9.95 per serving, and delivery is free for orders over $40.

COUPON: Get $30 off your first box from Home Chef. No coupon required, just use this link.

The Products: Fresh ingredients and chef-designed recipes— everything you need to make restaurant-quality meals at home.

HomeChef-April-2016-Map

Ships to: 60% of the US and expanding. (You can check to see if Home Chef delivers to your zip code here.)

Check out all of our Home Chef reviews and find other meal boxes in the Meal Subscription Box Directory!

Keep Track of your subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

HomeChef-April-2016-Quiz

When you first sign up for Home Chef, you take a short quiz about your meal preferences and dietary restrictions.

Based on this quiz, the Home Chef algorithm selects meals for you each week. If you’d rather receive different meals, it’s easy to swap them.

I found the website very user-friendly, and I was thrilled with the meal options. Home Chef had 10 dinner options available, 1 breakfast, a smoothie, and a fruit basket!

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When my box shipped, I received an email with tracking information.

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Home Chef sends ingredients bundled by recipe.

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A few larger items were sent unbundled. Meats were also packed separately (in the bottom of the box surrounded by cold packs).

Meal #1- Beef-and-Sherry “Steak Diane”

Calories: 891 per serving

Prep Time: 40-50 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

HomeChef-April-2016-SteakCard

I must have been craving home-style cooking when I ordered my box for this week because every single one of the recipes I picked is a “meat & two veg” kind of meal!

HomeChef-April-2016-SteakCardBack

The first recipe I cooked up from this box was Home Chef’s take on the classic Steak Diane.

HomeChef-April-2016-SteakPrep

I prepped for this meal by cleaning all of my produce and chopping mushrooms, shallot, and potatoes.

HomeChef-April-2016-SteakPotatoes

I boiled the potatoes in salted water until they softened and then strained them. I mixed in butter, heavy cream, salt, and pepper and mashed and stirred them until they were fluffy. (Home Chef recommended peeling the potatoes before cooking them, but I left the skin on. For some reason, I’ve always preferred skin-on mashed potatoes!)

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Next, I roasted the asparagus on a foil-lined baking tray.

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While the asparagus roasted, I cooked the steaks with a little Worcestershire sauce in a pan on the stove top. As per the instructions, I cooked them for approximately 4 minutes on each side, and I then transferred them to a plate to rest.

In the steak pan, I added butter, shallot, and mushrooms and cooked them together for about 4 minutes. I then added beef broth, Dijon mustard, sherry, and heavy cream to form the sauce- cooking it until it started to thicken.

When the sauce was ready, I plated the dish.

HomeChef-April-2016-SteakPlated

Altogether, this was really tasty! I don’t often cook steak and potatoes, so I think my husband was especially impressed with this dinner. The sauce and potatoes were both very rich. Frankly, if I’d made this dish without Home Chef’s recipe, I probably would have cut back a bit on the butter and/or cream.

Meal #2- Crispy Dijon Chicken with Parmesan Cauliflower Mash

Calories: 612 per serving

Prep Time: 45-55 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

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Next up, I made Crispy Dijon Chicken!

HomeChef-April-2016-ChickenPrep

I began by cutting the cauliflower florets, halving garlic cloves, and cleaning and trimming green beans.

HomeChef-April-2016-ChickenMash

I boiled the cauliflower and garlic in salted water until they softened, and then strained them and added parmesan, butter, and evaporated milk before mashing.

HomeChef-April-2016-ChickenBaked

Next, I breaded the chicken breasts with panko and Dijon and seared them in a pan over medium heat. I then transferred the chicken to a baking tray alongside the green beans, and transferred them to the oven.

HomeChef-April-2016-ChickenSauce

While they baked, I made a sauce from evaporated milk, Dijon mustard, butter, salt, and pepper.

When everything was ready, I transferred it to a plate.

HomeChef-April-2016-ChickenPlated

This dish was delicious! I’ve never made cauliflower mash before, and it was really tasty. I also loved the crispy chicken with the creamy sauce.

Meal #3- Jerk Chicken and Brown Sugar Plantains

Calories: 996 per serving

Prep Time: 40-50 minutes

Difficulty: Expert

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Last up was Jerk Chicken with Brown Sugar Plantains!

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I began by mincing chives, slicing a plantain, and chopping kale.

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Next, I made the coconut rice and seared the chicken breasts.

After the chicken was seared, I transferred it to the oven and roasted it for 10 minutes. I then removed it from the oven, basted the chicken with jerk sauce, and added the plantains (mixed with brown sugar, salt, and olive oil) to the pan before returning it to the oven.

While the chicken and plantains were in the oven, I sautéed the kale on the stove top.

When everything was ready, I plated the dish.

HomeChef-April-2016-JerkPlated

This dish was good, but it didn’t really wow me. The coconut rice was tasty, and I liked Home Chef’s jerk sauce, but there was no discernible heat to it. (I prefer my jerk sauce to have a bit of a kick.)

Verdict: Overall, this box from Home Chef was a hit! All of the dishes were tasty, and I especially enjoyed the Dijon Chicken and Steak Diane. The ingredients for my meals arrived in good condition, and I found the recipe cards very easy to follow. This is my second box from Home Chef, and I absolutely love their large selection of meals. With over 10 options every week, It’s easy for me to find meals that I’m excited to receive! In terms of value, Home Chef is very competitively priced in the meal box subscription market. Their meals start at $9.95 per serving, which is cheaper than Plated ($12 per serving) and on par with Blue Apron ($9.99 per serving) and Hello Fresh ($9.90 per serving).

Have you tried Home Chef?

Starting at $43.96
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Home Chef is a meal kit subscription service that allows customers to pick out specific meals each week that best fit their tastes and schedules. Whether you’re cooking for yourself and your spouse or having a full house of kids, Home Chef offers recipes that everyone can enjoy. Each Home Chef bo... read more.

Lindsey Morse
Lindsey Morse

Lindsey is a professional baker, cold brew coffee addict, and rosé aficionado who loves writing about food and wine. When she’s not sharing her love of subscription boxes with the world, you’ll find her in the podcasting studio, perfecting her cake decorating techniques, or cursing her way through the New York Times daily crossword puzzle. 


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12 comments

Jessica

These sound so yummy! Are the ingredients organic/grass-fed?

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Tonya

What happens if my box said it was delivered but it wasn’t? I emailed Home Chef today but haven’t gotten a response yet. I’m really bummed because this is my first box and I was planning to make a meal for dinner.

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Monica

That was an AMAZING week with Home Chef! We had the steak Diane, Dijon chicken, and grilled Mahi and Mahi with smokey lime butter and mango black bean salsa. My family (of 5) LOVED them all! I will be cooking each of them again and again!

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Annie

This looks fantastic! I wanted to sign up, but the map shows that they don’t deliver to my state. I went on their website anyway, and it looks like this is an old delivery map. They deliver to the whole East Coast (except for the tippy top of Maine) and a lot of the West Coast too now. I’m all signed up for next week!

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Beth F.

Once you made one of the meals they sent do you think you could then replicate it again on your own? Or would you need them to again send you special sauce or spice mixes? I’m thinking of subscribing just so I can learn to be a better cook.

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rockin_on05

Yes there are a few we have repeated several times. But as she stated below sometimes there might be a special ingredient or special spice or sauce mix or something they created but not all the time and it could be improvised.

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Diane

Yes, you should be able to replicate most of the recipes at home. I have replicated several of the recipes without a problem. There are some recipes where they send a pre-mixed spice blend but even with those, they list on the recipe card (usually near the bottom) what is included in the blend — i.e. 2 parts X, 1 part Y, etc.

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Debbie

This is my first week of Home chef and I’m very happy so far. There are a lot more meal options than Hello Fresh and they’re just a better fit for us (my husband is a picky eater). You’re food pics always make me hungry!

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kathryn

I LOVE HomeChef! I first signed up when they had their irresistible Black Friday deal (I think it was $15 for your first box!). The variety of meals always wows me! I’ve gotten a few boxes so far and I already have 2 boxes lined up to ship in the next few weeks. Next week I’m getting Steak Stroganoff, Green Peppercorn Pork Tenderloin, and Healthy Szechuan Chicken, can’t wait!
I’ve had mashed cauliflower from them with a couple meals and I just love it! It’s so easy to make and oh-so delicious! Plus, I always feel a little healthier since it’s made with healthy cauliflower 😉
The $30 off coupon gets you a box for 1/2 off! That’s a great value! Plus the website is so, so easy to use and skip a week or two if you want.

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Monica

I am getting the exact shipment, they ALL look SO good!!!

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kathryn

Hope all of your meals have been as tasty as mine! I was able to make 3 portions from the steak stroganoff & pork tenderloin, sizable portions as well!

rockin_on05

I didn’t pick all the same as you but the steak one I did. I noticed u said about the sauce & cream etc. It did say to add half of the cream to the potatoes well not thinking about it and mixing before as I’m adding I added half of the cream and got the potatoes too runny and had to rush microwave a few small potatoes to toss in to thicken up the potatoes…should have been mixing it as I was pouring but didn’t think about it til it was too late…but it turned out good. And I really really loved the sauce! But maybe I didn’t end up having as much cream as I should if I put a little extra in the potatoes

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