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Home Chef Subscription Box Review + Coupon – December 2017

Marne Orenich
ByMarne OrenichMar 12, 2018 | 9 comments

Home Chef Box

Home Chef
4 overall rating
26 Ratings | 14 Reviews

Home Chef is a meal kit subscription that delivers you a weekly box of the pre-portioned ingredients you need to make two to six meals that feed two, four, or six people. Home Chef advertises easy recipes that can be made in about 30 minutes. They say their ingredients are fresh (though they don't provide a lot of information about their sourcing practices), and they offer vegetarian, gluten-free, and calorie/carb-conscious recipes.

Open Home Chef Box

This is a review of the plan I customized that includes a mix of beef, fish, poultry, and vegetarian options (starting at $9.95 per serving) for two people, two meals a week ($39.80) + $10 shipping ($49.80 total per week). Delivery is free for orders over $45. Shipping is $10 for orders less than $45.

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

full contents of Home Chef Box

About Home Chef

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.)

December 2017 Home Chef Review

When you first sign up for Home Chef, you take a short quiz about your meal preferences and dietary restrictions. I like that they ask what you like to eat, as well a what you like to avoid. Based on your answers, Home Chef will choose recipes for you to get each week. As is the case with most meal kit services, you can log in and hand-select the recipes you'd like to receive. Note though, that the more particular you are with your diet, the fewer options you'll have. I'm pretty open to most proteins, so I currently have 10 different options for next week. There are also some "Add On" items like fruit or smoothie picks that you can choose to include in your box. I've also just noticed that they have an option to add a $5 donation to Feeding America. That's a great idea to make giving super simple.

A look inside a Home Chef Box

When you open your box and lift open the recyclable insulation, you'll see all of your ingredients tucked inside. The vegetables and non-meat items will be on top.

cardboard divider in Home Chef Box

Under them, you'll see a cardboard divider that lets you know there is more below.

ice packs and meat in Home Chef Box

This is where the ice packs are: with the meat to keep those extra cold. You can choose to toss the packs into your freezer to reuse, or simply cut them open to dump the contents into your normal trash and recycle the plastic. Same goes for the insulation, though its recycled fibers so you can throw it in your compost bin instead of into the trash.

Ranch chicken ingredients

Each Home Chef meal comes in a plastic bag, except for the meat, and some ingredients that are too large (such as ears of corn).

ranch chicken home chef bag

The bags are labeled as well to cut down on any confusion when you have multiples in your fridge.

Full ranch chicken ingredients laid out

Ranch Chicken with Jalapeno Popper Twice-Baked Potato and Green Beans

Calories: 682

Time to Table, According to Home Chef: 35-45 minutes

Actual Time to Table: 1 hr 30 mins (due to me not having a microwave)

Cook within: 5 days

Difficulty: Intermediate

Spice Level: Mild

front of ranch chicken recipe card

Chicken is my go-to meat and potato anything has my heart, especially in the wintertime, so this was an easy choice for me.

instructions for ranch chicken recipe

Never have I ever made a twice-baked potato, so this was a new task for me. It's not terribly complicated, just a little more involved. What I didn't notice until I read this to embark on dinner, was that they direct you to use your microwave to once bake your potatoes (6-10 minutes). If you've read my past reviews, you'll know that I don't own a microwave, and therefore had to revert to the 45-60 MINUTE oven baking method. Ugh. Note to self: read these recipes before choosing!! There goes my 30-minute meal.

baked potatoes on baking sheet

First things first, you gotta poke those po-tates for ventilation. This photo was taken post-50 minutes in the oven.

chicken breasts cooking in pan

While those potatoes were once-baking I seared my chicken breasts for 3 minutes per side in my trusty frying pan.

ranch sour cream in bowl

I also made the ranch sour cream which was just mixing ranch flavoring with sour cream and most of the chives I had minced.

baked potatoes with tops cut off on baking sheet

When the potatoes came out, I then sliced about a 1/4" off of the top to create a little potato boat I would then immediately carve out.

jalapeno popper twice baked potato filling

I put the "potato flesh" (Home Chef's words, NOT mine) into a mixing bowl with minced jalapeno, neufchâtel cheese, half of the shredded cheddar, and some salt and pepper and began slowly adding milk while mashing and stirring.

jalapeno popper twice baked potatoes and chicken breasts on cookie sheet

Then the mixed mash went back into the little potato skin boats on the baking sheet which was joined by the chicken breasts to finish. As you may notice, I totally forgot to add the rest of the shredded cheddar on top before popping into the oven for 8 minutes but remedied that later once I noticed.

green beans cooking in pan

While the potatoes and chicken were baking, I cooked the green beans in a frying pan with water until they were tender and the water evaporated (about 8 minutes).

plated ranch chicken with jalapeno popper twice baked potato

Here we have the whole team together, garnished with jalapeno slices on the potato, ranch sour cream and chives on the chicken, and some sea salt on the green beans.

close up of plated ranch chicken with jalapeno popper twice baked potato

This is kind of a perfect meal for me. I love potatoes and greens, as well as chicken breasts. Everything turned out really well, despite my previous anger with the potato-timing. Maybe I'll be making twice-baked potatoes more often?

tex-mex turkey taco salad ingredients tex-mex turkey taco salad bag full ingredients for tex-mex turkey taco salad laid out

Tex-Mex Turkey Taco Salad with Corn and Tomatoes

Calories: 580

Time to Table, According to Home Chef: 25-35 minutes

Actual Time to Table: 15 minutes?

Cook within: 5 days

Difficulty: Easy

Spice Level: Mild

front of tex-mex turkey taco salad recipe card

I think Home Chef auto-picked this one for me and I decided to keep it since I normally don't choose turkey and thought it sounded good.

instructions for tex-mex turkey taco salad recipe

This recipe rules because it took, like, under 20 minutes total. Cooking turkey took the longest, and my roommate was kind enough to prep the veggies for us!

halved hierloom cherry tomatoes in bowl

I expertly halved these heirloom cherry tomatoes myself.

sliced shallots, marinating in bowl

My roomie, Tony, sliced the shallots nice and thin and put them in a bowl with lime juice and a pinch of salt to "pickle".

ground turkey cooking in pan

Then, I crumbled the ground turkey into a pan and mixed it with the included taco seasoning. It seemed a little dry at first but was fine once I mixed it all in.

salad ingredeitns in bowl with dressing

Tones threw the chopped romaine in a bowl with the rinsed corn, cherry tomatoes, and already made chipotle ranch dressing to mix.

plated tex-mex turkey taco salad

Simply put the salad mix on a plate, and add the turkey, shallots, and sour cream and you have your meal!

close up of plated tex-mex turkey taco salad

This took no time at all and was a tasty salad which could be eaten for lunch or dinner, in my opinion. I think I still prefer beef to turkey with taco seasoning, but the turkey wasn't bad at all!

Verdict: This month's Home Chef meals didn't blow my mind but were both super good. I definitely liked the ranch chicken and twice-baked potato over the Tex-Mex salad, but it's because I am a monster for heavy food in the cold months. Something I learned: read the full recipe when choosing meals so I can skip anything that may use a microwave (rare). The 15-minute salad meal definitely made up for the over-an-hour potato fiasco. 

To Wrap Up:

Can you still get this box if you sign up today? Since Home Chef menus change weekly and you must choose them ahead of time, you won’t be able to order these dishes unless they are offered again in the future.

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

Value Breakdown: At $49.80 ($9.95 per serving plus $10 shipping) for this box, we actually paid $12.45 per serving.

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

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

What did you make from Home Chef this month?

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.

Marne Orenich
Marne Orenich
Marne is a lipstick connoisseur, record collector, and twice over cat mom. She loves discovering new clean beauty brands and has quite the collection of beautifully packaged serums and moisturizers.

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9 comments

Dianac

Marne, what camera do you use?

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Shannon

I’ve been getting Home Chef for about 6 months now and I love it. Their meats always taste great and as an experienced cook I can usually cut the cooking time down by multi-tasking. Most of the recipes have step-by-step instructions that are good for beginning cooks but can be combined. My only complaint about their food is with the green beans, the ones they send seem tough and stringy. I much prefer haricot verts (french green beans). The sugar snap peas are also stringy and they do not include instructions to de-string them.

Overall, I would recommend Home Chef. I have used Hello Fresh and Plated, which are also very good but Home Chef has more meals to choose from each week which suits my picky family better.

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Michelle

Next time, instead of baking them first try boiling them. How do you live without a microwave? If I had to give up my stove or my microwave the stove would go.

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Marne Orenich

Oh for real? You can just boil them too? Wouldn’t have thought of that.
I honestly never use microwaves! Years ago I moved in with a friend who didn’t have one and got used to only using a toaster oven or regular oven and never went back. Reheating leftovers on the stove or in the oven actually improves them in my opinion and that’s the main reason I’d use one, I suppose.

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Tami

You write really write good reviews. Enjoy your sense of humor too. I’m also not a fan of ground turkey. It’s not beef and isn’t that much healthier.

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Marne Orenich

Thanks, Tami! I’m recently realizing that a lot of foods aren’t quite as healthy as I was taught at some point! Turkey has its place, but I’m not sure it’s here.

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Garfield

Nice review.
Do you know that if you added 2 smoothies a box your price would go down 10 cents due to free shipping?

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Marne Orenich

Garfield and Amber, you are both so smart! Why didn’t I think of that? I actually added on a lunch for next month, but didn’t think about the shipping cost!

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Amber P

Adding the fruit basket or no-cook meal will too! I always, always add one of the three. You gotta pay the extra $10 either way.

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