Home Chef Subscription Box Review + Coupon – July 2018

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

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, with two meals a week ($39.80) + a smoothie  ($4.95 per serving) for a $49.70 total. 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.)

About Home Chef

The Subscription Box: Home Chef

The Cost: Meals start at $9.95 per serving, and delivery is free for orders over $45.

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.)

Home Chef July 2018 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, smoothies, or quick lunches that you can choose to include in your box.

On one box flap, you'll find their social media handle, @realhomechef.

The other flap gives a short rundown on how to properly dispose of the various packaging.

After opening the box you'll see instructions on how to recycle the packing material right on it. You can throw the cotton fiber "stuffing" in the trash (or compost, if you are so inclined) and recycle the plastic.

You'll then find all of your ingredients tucked inside. The vegetables and non-meat items will be on top inside their bags.

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

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.

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).

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

Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Peppers with blue cheese cream

Calories: 584

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

Actual Time to Table: 40 minutes

Cook within: 5 days

Difficulty: Easy

Spice Level: Spicy

I'm in love with buffalo chicken anything, and also obsessed with poblano peppers, so this was an obvious choice for me.

Most of the work in this recipe is just prepping the veggies.

The first thing to do was to roast the poblano peppers. There were three included, so they were sliced in half and put sliced-side down on a foil-lined baking sheet and drizzled with olive oil. This is actually what they looked like after 12 minutes in the oven.

While they were cooking, I made the super simple blue cheese cream topping by mixing the blue cheese crumbles together with sour cream in a small bowl.

Next, I cooked the chicken (5-7 minutes) after cubing it into 1-inch chunks.

Then they went into a mixing bowl with the shredded jack cheese, diced tomatoes, sliced green onion, ranch seasoning, and hot sauce.

The peppers weren't super sturdy, so they were more like plates than bowls, but the chicken mixture went into them all the same before going back into the oven for about 6 more minutes for the cheese to melt.

BOOM! Here is a three pepper portion of the meal, topped with the blue cheese cream and garnished with green onion.

It doesn't look all that pretty, but boy was it delicious! It was insanely easy to make and the chicken was really most and overall was just the right amount of spicy! I don't always eat leftovers, but I had this a couple nights later and it was still really yummy!

Steak Marsala with Parmesan mash and cremini mushrooms

Calories: 642

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

Actual Time to Table: 50 minutes

Cook within: 6 days

Difficulty: Intermediate

Spice Level: Not Spicy

I just realized that I had a steak with mushroom meal last month as well. I try to show y'all some variety but it looks like I have a "type"!

I love mashed potatoes so it was interesting to see how they had me make these.

Starting things off right with the salt + peppered steaks into the pan! I like them on the rarer side so I did 2 minutes per side before they went into the oven for another 6 minutes.

I then turned my attention to the mushrooms. One of my all-time favorite vegetables, these mushrooms softened up nicely in the pan.

I then added salt, green onion, and the marsala wine and let some of the liquid cook off.

I then added half the can of evaporated milk, the beef demiglace, and surprisingly a half cup of water. This seemed like an awful lot of liquid and it did take quite some time to thicken.

While the mushrooms cooked, I mashed up the potatoes that had been cooking in a pot of water for the last 2o minutes (that was actually the first thing I got started). I added green onion, and the other half of the evaporated milk, plus the parmesan cheese. It whipped up REAL NICE. So creamy!

Here we have it- the finished meal. Minus all of those green onions for garnish, this is basically a dream meal for me. I am so meat + potatoes it hurts.

Everything here was amazing. The beef was really tender and still nice and red in the middle, the mashed potatoes were super creamy and rich, and the mushrooms and sauce brought the flavor to the next level. I also ate this meal as leftovers the next day and it was even better.

Lookin' Fineapple Smoothie with ginger and Greek yogurt

Calories: 223

Time to Table, According to Home Chef: 5-10 minutes

Actual Time to Table: 5 minutes

Cook within: 7 days

Difficulty: Easy

Spice Level: Not Spicy

I always get a smoothie these days since it bumps me into free shipping territory for the box. There isn't usually a choice between smoothies, but you could also add on fresh fruit or a quick no-cook lunch for the same effect.

Here's one serving of the smoothie. While it was good, I didn't end up finishing the second serving like I sometimes do. I think overall I prefer berry smoothies to this more citrusy one.

Verdict: Home Chef had amazing meals for me once again! It's almost unheard of that I eat leftovers, let alone finish the leftovers from both meals! The buffalo chicken peppers were probably my favorite, and certainly the first time I've made anything like that. I need to make more easy recipes like that on my own! 

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 $49.70 for this box, each dinner was $9.95 per serving, and the smoothie was $4.95 per serving with free shipping.

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

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Am I crazy for cooking a heavy meal like Steak Marsala from Home Chef in this summer heat?