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Home Chef Subscription Box Review + Coupon– March 31, 2017

Lindsey Morse
ByLindsey MorseMar 31, 2017 | 17 comments

Home-chef-March2-2017-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.”

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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-March2-2017-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-March2-2017-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.

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

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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- Chicken Chili Verde with Lime Crema and Fresh Cilantro

Calories: 591 per serving

Prep Time: 35-45 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

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Even though the weather has been warming up where I live, I haven’t been able to shake my wintery cravings for soups and stews. When I saw this recipe for Chicken Chili Verde on the menu, I couldn’t resist— it looked delicious, and I’ve never made green chili at home before.

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After dicing an onion, mincing some garlic, chopping cilantro, and zesting and quartering a lime, I got to cooking.

First, I seared two chicken breasts in a Dutch oven and then transferred them into the oven to cook through. When they were done cooking, I set them aside to cool and started working on the chili.

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Home Chef provided the pre-made verde sauce (it’s actually green enchilada sauce), so the chili came together really quickly. After sautéing the onion and garlic, I simply added beans, water, shredded chicken, chopped cilantro, and the green enchilada sauce. (Note that Home Chef recommended adding the beans and the bean liquid from the can, but I opted to rinse them instead. I’m just not a fan of the viscous liquid that comes with canned beans, and I’ve always been taught to discard it.)

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I let the chili simmer for a few minutes, and while I was waiting for it to cook I made lime crema by combining sour cream with lime juice and zest.

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This dish was extremely easy to make, and it turned out really tasty! It was hearty and filling, and I like that the flavor was brighter and more vibrant than the traditional red chili that I typically make. I think I’m definitely going to try recreating this recipe at home!

Meal #2- Classic French Green Peppercorn Pork Tenderloin with Mashed Carrots and Roasted Asparagus

Calories: 625 per serving

Prep Time: 25-35 minutes

Difficulty: Intermediate

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Next up, I decided to pick this recipe for Classic French Green Peppercorn Pork Tenderloin. If you regularly read my Home Chef reviews, you’ll know that I’ve been on something of a pork tenderloin kick, so I couldn’t resist this dish! (I think all three of my past boxes have contained pork tenderloin dishes!)

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First, I peeled and chopped the provided carrots and got them boiling in salted water.

While they cooked, I seared the tenderloin and then transferred it to a baking sheet alongside asparagus tossed in olive oil.

Home-chef-March2-2017-pork-roasting

I let the asparagus and pork cook in the oven while I mashed the cooked carrots with butter and made the peppercorn sauce from minced shallot, heavy cream, sherry, demi-glace, and green peppercorns.

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When everything was ready, I sliced the pork and plated it with the veggies and sauce.

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This dish was incredible! The peppercorn sauce was extremely easy to make, but it tasted like something I’d expect to receive in a French steakhouse. The carrots were buttery and rich, and I loved the asparagus.

Meal #3- Avocado and Tofu Sushi Bowl with Carrots, Cucumber, and Spicy Mayo

Calories: 686 per serving

Prep Time: 35-45 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Home-chef-March2-2017-bowl-recipe

Last up, I picked out this Tofu Sushi Bowl recipe. I don’t often cook with tofu at home, but I LOVE sushi and this recipe was calling my name!

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I cooked the rice in salted water, cubed the tofu, sliced the provided mini cucumbers, and made spicy mayo by combining sriracha with mayo. (Side note: I love that Home Chef always sends mayo from Sir Kensington’s— so fancy!)

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I sliced the avocado and then made the salad by combining carrot, cucumber, rice vinegar, olive oil, and salt.

Home-chef-March2-2017-bowl-tofu

For the tofu, I seared it in a hot nonstick pan and then added in a little water and some teriyaki glaze. (The tofu was seriously delicious— I couldn’t stop sneaking little bites while I was finishing off the cooking.)

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To plate, I transferred the cooked rice between two bowls and topped each one with tofu, carrot salad, and sliced avocado. I served the spicy mayo on the side and topped each dish with some furikake.

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These bowls were such a delight. First of all, they were so pretty! I also loved the combination of ingredients. Altogether, this was a fresh and tasty meal.

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 ($9.99 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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17 comments

Jessica

A word of warning… Just letting you guys know if you try this and do not want the service anymore, please be aware of when you cancel. I went on and hit the pause button per their direction which brings up another screen which makes you hit pause again… I apparently missed this- in fact there may be a third screen to pause as well- basically make sure you have the confirmation email to confirm you cancelled… I am now stuck with another week of delivery, which I did not want at all and frankly is not worth the cost… My fault for not making sure I had it right… but frustrating none the less…

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Cheryl

The peppercorn pork was my & my husbands favorite meal so far. It was delicious!!! And I think I boiled my carrots for at least 20 minutes & they were still a bit crunchy.

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Amy

The meals are super yummy, and I agree with the tofu dish (it was so enriched with layers of flavor). Also my shipments had punctures in the meat packaging which caused blood to leak everywhere. And I also am concerned with the freshness of the meats especially when they are exposed to air. They’ve given me a refund every time. But it does concern me since it’s happened a handful of times.

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shannon

I have just received my third Home Chef box and have loved all of the recipes with the exception of the spaghetti and meatballs which was way too garlicky. The steak in one of my boxes leaked a little during shipping but since everything else was wrapped tightly and it didn’t seep into any of the other food I washed it all off and moved on.

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debbie

Last night I had yummy pork-chops with a honey mustard gravy from home chef. Very good.

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Vanessa

I love home chef! They’ve had growing pains as a small business but I’ve been with them for over a year. Overtime something happens or the ingredients are not up to par, I just send them an e-mail. It takes ten 1-3 days to get back and they are very reasonable to deal with.

I am however, EXTREMELY upset they dropped their breakfast option. This was a perfect Sunday brunch for us every week! 🙁 SO UPSET!

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Ash

Lindsey, your meal looks amazing. Loved the review! ❤

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Ash

I cancelled yesterday because they didn’t respond to any of my attempts to contact customer service. My first box arrived LEAKING BLOOD. There was steak juice all over the bottom of the box and the recipe notebook they included. The rest of the food was fine because it was on the top of the box, but the meat was NOT airtight. Unlike the other food service companies, Home Chef shipping lasted two days, which added to my worry the meat wasn’t safely preserved. Very disappointed, especially because I love the menu they offer. Even after I cancelled, customer service didn’t reach out to me except for in an automated email saying how busy they are. Oh well…

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Lidia

Hi did you ever get a response? My order arrived late everything was defrosted even the ice packs.

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Thom Richards

I canceled months ago because the chicken packaging leaked, again. I was able to get through to Costumer Service the second time and they told me they recently changed the packaging but never had a complaint regarding leakage. As with you, I felt the menu was superb and I never had problems with the veggies or canisters. I just could not trust the packaging of the meats.

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Ash

They reached out to me and said they were about to start a new way of packing the meat that includes having it in a zipped bag. I might give them another shot.

Nicole

That’s a bummer, sorry that happened. I also received my first box leaking through, it was shrimp juice (yuck!) from the bag that somehow got punctured, likely in the packing process. I emailed them with pictures attached and they emailed me back within 12 hours giving me a $10 credit for the damaged shrimp. It felt more than fair since the rest of the meal was intact and with my discount for the first box, that was the price for the whole meal. I just bought new shrimp from the grocery store.

That’s what they should have done for you, sorry they didn’t.

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Ash

They finally got back to me and made the same offer of a $10 credit. I agree with you–that’s a fair solution. 😉

Joy

Didn’t you find that the carrots took waaaaay longer to cook than the recipe suggested?

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Christie Cundiff

I think the carrots cooked for at least 15 minutes (maybe a little longer) before they were fork tender. The instructions needed to add 10 minutes to the cooking time. It was a tasty meal!

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Joy

It was a good meal. I just thought it was funny how far they were off for that cook time as their recipes are usually pretty spot on.