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Home Chef Subscription Box Review + Coupon – January 2017

Lindsey Morse
ByLindsey MorseJan 26, 2017 | 7 comments

Home-chef-January-2017-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.”

Home-chef-January-2017-box-open

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

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

Home-chef-January-2017-review

The Subscription Box: Home Chef

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

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

Ships to: 90% of the U.S. (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!

Home-chef-January-2017-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, Home Chef selects meals for you each week. If you’d rather receive different meals, it’s easy to swap them. You can also skip a week whenever you like.

I think the Home Chef website is very user-friendly, and I like how many meal options they offer. Most weeks, Home Chef offers 10 dinner options, a breakfast, a smoothie, and a fruit basket.

Home-chef-January-2017-email

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

Home-chef-January-2017-bundles

Ingredients for each meal are bundled together in plastic, and meats are always packed separately at the bottom of the box under ice packs to help maintain freshness.

Now, on to the food!

Meal #1- Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps with Water Chestnuts and Sesame Dipping Sauce

Calories: 576 per serving

Prep Time: 25-35 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Home-chef-January-2017-wraps-recipe

I had a really hard time picking out recipes for this box— everything looked particularly tasty this week! I finally settled on three meals, and when my box arrived I decided to make this one first.

Home-chef-January-2017-wraps-prep

All of the ingredients for this dish arrived looking great. (I really like that Home Chef included a head of living lettuce for optimum freshness!)

Home-chef-January-2017-wraps-filling

This meal came together really quickly. I browned the turkey and then mixed in hoisin sauce, Sriracha, water chestnuts, green onion, and ginger. After cooking it all together for another minute, the filling was done!

Home-chef-January-2017-wraps

I constructed the wraps by scooping the filling into lettuce leaves and topping it with a pre-sliced cabbage mix. For dipping, Home Chef included packets of Asian Sesame Dressing.

Home-chef-January-2017-wraps-detail

These lettuce wraps were delicious. The filling was really tasty, and I loved the combination of sweet and spicy flavors. My only complaint about this dish is that I wasn’t in love with the dressing Home Chef sent for dipping, so I ended up skipping it. Luckily, the lettuce wraps were juicy and flavorful enough that I didn’t think they needed a dipping sauce, anyway.

Meal #2- Mushroom- Spinach Lasagna Rolls with Ricotta and Mozzarella Cheese

Calories: 756 per serving

Prep Time: 40-50 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Home-chef-January-2017-lasagne-recipe

I love lasagna, so for my next meal, I thought it would be fun to try these lasagna rolls!

Here’s a shot of all the ingredients that were included for this dish.

Home-chef-January-2017-lasagne-prep

The recipe provided instructions to made four rolls (using four sheets of lasagna). My box contained six sheets of pasta, though, so I decided to use them all and make six rolls.

Home-chef-January-2017-lasagne-filling

I cleaned my mushrooms and cooked them in a little olive oil with Italian seasoning. Next, I was supposed to add spinach to the pan, but when I opened up the spinach I discovered that it was in pretty bad shape. I had some fresh Italian parsley on hand, so I added that instead. (I reached out to Home Chef about the wilted spinach, and they issued me a $5 credit.)

Home-chef-January-2017-lasagne-rolling

Next, I constructed the rolls. I mixed ricotta with some shredded mozzarella and spread it evenly along each of the lasagna noodles. I topped each one with the mushroom parsley mix and then rolled each one up.

Home-chef-January-2017-lasagne-raw

I placed the rolls in a glass baking pan with marinara sauce, topped them with mozzarella. and baked the dish at 400 degrees until the cheese bubbled up and browned.

Here is is fresh out of the oven:

Home-chef-January-2017-lasagne

Yum!

Home-chef-January-2017-lasagne-plated

Okay, so this may not be the most elegant dinner I’ve ever had, but it was a lot of fun to make!

The rolls were warm and gooey, and I ended up really liking the addition of the parsley. It added some much-needed freshness to the mountain of cheese. My husband and I paired the rolls with a fresh green salad, and altogether it was a tasty and comforting meal— perfect for a chilly winter evening!

Meal #3- Sirloin Steak with Brown Butter Bordelaise with Brussels Sprouts and Roasted Potatoes

Calories: 734 per serving

Prep Time: 35-45 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Home-chef-January-2017-steak-recipe

Last up, I made this sirloin steak dish. I’m not much of a meat and potatoes girl, but my husband loves meals like this. He’s a big fan of Home Chef because they pretty reliably offer “meat and two veg” meals like this one.

Home-chef-January-2017-steak-prep

After prepping the ingredients for this dish, I prepared the potatoes by sautéing them in a hot skillet until they developed a nice brown crust and then finishing them off in the oven. (I normally roast potatoes in the oven for the entire cooking time, but I like how this cooking method gave them a darker, crispier crust!)

Home-chef-January-2017-steak-steaks

I roasted the Brussels sprouts on a tray in the oven and seared the steaks before placing them in the oven, too, to finish cooking.

While the potatoes, sprouts, and steaks roasted, I made the Bordelaise sauce from butter, shallots, red cooking wine, beef demi-glace, and some water.

Home-chef-January-2017-steak

This dish was another hit! The potatoes were delightfully crispy, the Brussels sprouts were yummy, and the Bordelaise sauce was fantastic. I also love that I picked up a new cooking technique for potatoes!

Verdict: Home Chef offers great variety when it comes to meal selection, and I like that the menus often feature classic dishes and comfort foods. I really enjoyed all of my meal picks this week! 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).

Do you subscribe to Home Chef? Which dishes did you pick last week?

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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7 comments

Deb

Are you able to cancel your subscription at any time? Or do you have to keep it for a certain length of time? Not sure how my husband will feel about some of the meals. Also, if I’m not able to use them all while they are still fresh are they freezable?

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hollie

I just got my first box from Home Chef today. Tonight’s meal was Steel Head Trout Nicoise. The portion was perfect. The meal was a good sized piece of trout (YUM) on a bed of spinach , red potatoes and green beans – with tomato relish on the side or top (tomatoes, kalamata olives, capers and lemon). This was so easy to make (even though rated at intermediate) and it was wonderful. For someone who hates grocery shopping, never really bothers with putting together balanced meals, and who is pretty busy this was perfect. I even really enjoyed cooking it – nice break in a busy day.

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Steph M

This review pushed me over the edge. I had wanted to try a meal sub and this coupon/review came at the right time! Thank you MSA and Lindsey! I get my first box next Wednesday!

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debbie

I use Home Chef the most because it offers at least 3 low carb recipes a week. I live alone so the box gives me 6 meals . Knowing I have a good meal at home has kept me from the drive-thru line.

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Michelle

Anyone else get an Austin Powers flashback at the ” meat and 2 veg” LOL

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Kristin

If it is offered I highly recommend the chicken Marsala I seriously could eat it every day, I mean week…

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Sarah

Yup we had that one this week! Tasty

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