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Plated Subscription Box Review + Coupon – January 2018

Taryn Lowman
ByTaryn LowmanJan 24, 2018 | 9 comments
Plated
3.7 overall rating
43 Ratings | 23 Reviews

Plated Box January 2018 Box

Plated is a weekly meal kit delivery subscription that delivers you pre-portioned ingredients and recipes to help you make chef-designed recipes at home. They offer different weekly menus and randomly pick recipes for you based on preferences you submit when you sign up. If you'd rather pick your own recipes from the weekly menu, it's easy to hop in and change your order on their website or their handy-dandy app.

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Plated is committed to using sustainably sourced seafood, seasonal produce, and meat that’s free from antibiotics and added hormones. Like most meal kits, Plated won't include standard pantry items (think salt, pepper, olive oil). They will, however, email you to let you know what pantry items you should have on hand for that week's box. Prep time and dietary details are listed in each recipe. And if you love a recipe, you can rate it and download a digital recipe card via your online account. (Highly rated recipes sometimes come back as "Encore" recipes for you to order again, so don't forget to leave your star rating each week!)

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

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This review is for the 2 recipes (4 plates) plan, which cost $48.00 per week (+ $6.00 shipping). I chose to have chicken, beef, shellfish, and fish as options to include in my recipes.

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About Plated

The Subscription Box: Plated

The Cost: Recipes begin at $12.00 per plate:

  • 2 recipes (4 plates)= $48.00 per week (+ $6.00 shipping)
  • 3 recipes (6 plates)= $72.00 per week (with free shipping)
  • 4 recipes (8 total plates)= $96.00 per week (with free shipping)
  • Dessert costs $4.00 per serving (available after your first order)

ACTIVE DEAL: Get 25% off your first four weeks (up to $159 in savings). No coupon needed - just use this link.

The Products: All of the pre-portioned fresh and seasonal ingredients you need to make chef-designed recipes at home in your own kitchen.

Ships to: 95% of the U.S. (Currently, Plated does not ship to Hawaii and Alaska, and there are also a few cities in Texas, including San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Laredo, and Midland, where they don’t yet ship.)

Good to know: Plated was recently purchased by Albertsons.

Plated January 2018 Review

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Plated sends each meal mostly packaged together in a plastic bag, except for meat and any larger produce that may not fit (like this HUGE escarole). Each individually wrapped item is marked with the meal it belongs to so you can organize them in your refrigerator upon unpacking. I really appreciate this extra step to keep things organized and easy for me when unpacking!

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Chicken Spanakorizo with Feta and Kalamata Olives 

Calories per Serving: 850

Total Prep and Cook Time (listed): 30-40 minutes

Actual Time to Cook: 40 minutes

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Plated recipe cards come with a short description on the front and include the estimated prep and cook time and the calories per serving.

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On the other side, you'll see a list of ingredients, what you'll need from your kitchen (ingredients as well as tools), recipe tips, and step-by-step directions with photos. This meal doesn't have too many extensive steps, but a good amount of chopping is involved.

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I started by finely chopping the parsley and dill. I love fresh herbs, the smell filled my home like a fresh spring day.

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I moved on to chopping the kalamata olives next. The arrived pitted so all I had to do was finely chop, not necessary in my opinion, but it spreads the olive flavor out in the final dish.

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The last step in chopping was to finely chop the garlic, onion, and to half the lemons. That's it, not too bad, and the smell of fresh herbs and onion filled my house which I loved!

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Cooking the chicken is probably the easiest part. It recommends pounding the chicken down, but I thought the cuts were small and thin as it is so I decided to skip this step. All you have to do is heat olive oil in a pan, cook on each side for about 6 minutes, and then remove the skin. I cook a lot of chicken so I have a few personal thoughts here. I think if you aren't adding anything special to the chicken, you could get this done a lot faster and easier with less mess by baking the chicken in the oven. This allows you to just put it in the oven and move onto the next step, it might cook longer but it gives you more time to get other things done. I also didn't remove the skin because, by the time I was done cooking the chicken, the skin was pretty crusted on there. I would rather have a piece of chicken without the skin if it is meant to be removed. Totally a personal opinion on baking here!

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Once my chicken rant ended, I added the garlic, onion, and shrimp to a pan to sautee together. Once that has wilted a bit, I added the cumin, this smelled incredible!

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Once the onions looked slightly browned, I added the rice and chicken broth. I covered and let simmer all together to combine the flavors and to cook the rice through. This let me get back to cooking my chicken.

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Once the rice completely absorbed the chicken broth, I added my chicken. It said to shred the chicken, but mine was way overcooked and didn't shred nicely. I have such success with baking chicken that I just can't help but think this would have turned out better had I baked instead of cooked on the stove. Again, just my opinion!

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Once everything is combined, I added the parsley, dill, olives, and feta. Combine and let that yummy feta melt a little. We added our first lemon half at this step because we forgot to do it earlier.

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From there I was able to plate with my lemon slices as a garnish. The lemon juice can be added as a nice extra if you wish. That's it, you are left with a super hearty rice and chicken dish! Overall I really loved this dish! The flavors were so fresh and you can't beat kalamata olives, feta, lemon, and spinach. The rice really brought everything together and made this super filling. I do think that there were some extra steps that you didn't need to do, like cooking the chicken on the stove. This is an easy dish that I know I will remember how to make and rebuild it on my own down the road!

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Chicken Milanese with Braised Escarole, White Beans, and Ricotta Salata 

Calories per Serving: 670

Total Prep and Cook Time (listed): 35-45 minutes

Actual Time to Cook: 35 minutes

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Here is our second recipe, an Italian dish that looks super easy and hearty! I love reading through the recipe tips that are listed on the back of each card.

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I started by chopping first, there are so many fresh ingredients and look at all of that green! Escarole is usually dirty so you really want to get in there and wash it thoroughly either before or after removing the stem. Then we have garlic finely chopped and then sliced, parsley, and one lemon.

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My first step was to build my "chicken breading" station. Please excuse the iPad in the back, we keep our baby monitor up at night and I completely forgot that it was there, second nature now! Here I have my rice flour, one egg whisked (you will need to provide your own egg), and then breadcrumbs, parmesan, and your finely chopped garlic. I love breaded chicken so this makes me so happy to have a full dipping station.

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I just went down the line with my chicken in the rice flour, egg, and then the mixture of parmesan, breadcrumbs, and garlic. Then I just add it to my oiled pan to cook for 2 to 4 minutes on each side. Unfortunately, my chicken took a lot longer than the listed time, but all I did was set a timer for 4 minutes and keep flipping until I could tell that the middle was fully cooked.

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The next step is super easy! All I had to do was add the escarole, beans, butter, wine, garlic, and lemon to a pan. I added some salt and pepper to taste and let this all simmer together in the pan while my chicken cooked. The escarole really wilt down so make sure you are stirring and checking to see if you need any extra seasoning. So quick and omg it smelled so yummy!

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Once my chicken was cooked it was time to plate. As a garnish, I added the chopped parsley and crumbled the ricotta all over the plate. I went a little crazy on the ricotta because I am a cheese fanatic. The finished dish was so filling and looked as good as it tasted! The chicken was perfect, even though it took longer than I would have liked, and the breading was so rich and crunchy. The beans and greens were so flavorful, and I really enjoyed the touch of lemon and wine. I make beans and greens a lot, but I don't typically get so fancy with them. I am going to keep this recipe to cook at a family Sunday night dinner, I know it will be a huge winner!

Verdict: I really enjoyed both of the meals that I received this month from Plated! I do think the meals are a little fancier than I am used to cooking, or maybe I have just developed my own tricks for when I am cooking to make things a bit faster. The great thing about Plated, for me, is that it made me slow down a bit with my cooking and really use different ingredients and cooking techniques that I would normally shy away from. Both meals were simple and didn't take too long, I did have my husband helping me, but that is sort of what makes this box so much fun. It is team building at its best!

To Wrap Up:

Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No. The Plated menus change weekly and you need to lock in orders before shipments go out.

Coupon - Get 50% off your first week of Plated with any subscription plan (up to $79.60 value)

Value Breakdown: This box cost $48.00 + $6.00 shipping, which is $13.50 per meal.

Check out all of our Plated Reviews and discover more meal boxes in the Meal Subscription Box Directory!

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

Would you eat the meals I cooked from Plated this week? 

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This weekly meal kit delivery subscription lets you select from a diverse, ever-changing menu of 20 recipes per week that feature responsibly sourced meats, sustainable seafood, and seasonal ingredients. They're also the only meal kit box to offer add-on desserts! Choose to receive everything you ne... read more.
Taryn Lowman
Taryn Lowman
Taryn's passion for subscription boxes started when she was gifted a monthly Birchbox. She is excited to discover more Mom and baby boxes to share with her family!

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9 comments

Alex

Looks great. I also prefer baking my chicken breasts. They just seem to cook better and stay more moist.

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Taryn Lowman

Totally agree!

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Terry

I think I’ve tried every box and Plated is really my favorite- I definitely recommend it! Great taste and great food.

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Taryn Lowman

Thank you for your post!

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Grace

FYI: Your cutting board is too small for your chefs knife. from a safety and comfort standpoint you want to have 2 full inches on either side of the board when you lay the knife down on a diagonal.

I really didn’t think this made a huge deal until i started cooking at my bf’s place where he has BIG cutting boards and its soooo much nicer. Gives you room to really make great knife cuts, and not feel crowded with voluminous produce (looking at you Kale and CHARD)

Plated has been a really fun addition to our weekends. My boyfriend loves to knife prep so I leave him alone while he chops and puts everything into prep bowls, then he leaves and i come in and do the cooking.

I fully understand why chefs have sous chefs.

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Taryn Lowman

Thanks for your post!

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Barbara

Heard they were bought by Albertsons/Safeway and that the kits may soon be available for purchase in-store. That would make them easy to try without committing to several meals weekly. Any news on that?

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Taryn Lowman

Oh I’m not sure about that, I will have to keep an eye out if they provide an update!

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Alyssa Weinzapfel

Walmart is also now offering subscription boxes without the subscription. I received an email listing lots of different ones for people just wanting to purchase a one off without commitment.

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