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 no-cook lunch ($7.99 per serving) for a $55.78 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 September 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. You can also throw the cotton fiber "stuffing" in the trash (or compost, if you are so inclined) and recycle the plastic that makes up the packing inside the box.
For warmer months, there are ice packs right on top.
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 more 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.
Sometimes there will be some info cards besides the recipes included. Home Chef is bringing attention to Hunger Action Month by urging you to volunteer at your local food bank.
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.
Calories: 532 per serving
Time to Table, According to Home Chef: 5-10 minutes
Actual Time to Table: 7 minutes
Cook within: 5 days
Difficulty: Easy
Spice Level: Not Spicy
I've been pretty obsessed with Poke Bowls lately so I jumped at the chance to get thisno-cook meal. There is virtually no prep for this one besides opening the packages and slicing the salmon, so let's cut to the finished photos.
Isn't she pretty? Smoked salmon is an easy way to get all kinds of nutrients and this bowl is packed with cabbage, edamame, and brown rice as well. The directions want you to microwave the already cooked brown rice, but since I am without one, I just heated it up in a pot with a little bit of water so it didnt burn. The sesame seeds are the perfect garnish for this.
Even though this probably makes a nice light lunch for the type of person who eats the amount of meals they should, I wolfed down both portions at once since I hadn't eaten anything that day until about 3pm. I only used about half of one dressing packet, but it was a great bowl and made me realize how easy this would be to make on my own with packaged smoked salmon!
Italian Sausage Pesto Cavatappi with Asparagus and Mushrooms
Calories: 816
Time to Table, According to Home Chef: 20-30 minutes
Actual Time to Table: 35 minutes
Cook within: 5 days
Difficulty: Easy
Spice Level: Not Spicy
I make a lot of chicken and salmon with meal kits, so I tried to venture a little further outside of that this week with a sausage recipe.
This recipe used so little cooking uutensilswhich made me happy because it means fewer dishes to do after.
I began by squeezing the sausage out of the casing and chunking it up in a pan with oil into bite-size pieces. I don't recall ever having to squeeze the meat out of a tube which means I've never cooked with Italian sausage before. Wild, right? Once that cooked for 5 minutes, I put the meat aside on a plate.
It said to wipe out the pan, but I rolled with the sausage grease and all and plopped the sliced mushrooms in there. They cooked for 4 minutes.
I then tossed in the cut asparagus pieces in with the mushrooms to create this beautiful medley you see before you. 3 minutes in there and they were softer but still crisp.
And here is where I pull out the secret pasta I had been boiling from the start. I get you all every time with that secret pasta move...
Oh, hello. The pasta and the sausage returned to the pan and shook hands with the vegetables while things heated up. There was also some reserved pasta water that I remembered to save while straining that went in too.
I removed it from the heat as directed, then added the pesto, sour cream, and parm with some salt +pepper.
Oh yeah, baby. Look at that heavy pasta dish full of creamy goodness. Just a bit of parmesan was reserved to sprinkle on top.
This meal was A++ and my roommate confirmed that it was even better the next day. The sausage was super delicious and I'm glad I went for a new meat recipe. Mushrooms and asparagus were perfect compliments to it all.
Pesto-Butter Pork Chop with Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli
Calories: 611 per serving
Time to Table, According to Home Chef: 20-30 minutes
Actual Time to Table: 30 minutes
Cook within: 6 days
Difficulty: Easy
Spice Level: Not Spicy
I didn't even realize it until I was making this dish that I chose two pesto meals. What can I say? I love pesto! I also never cook bone-in meat but I thought I'd, once again, try something a bit different.
I loved that this had so few ingredients. It's basically pork chop, broccoli, garlic, pesto, cheese, butter. That's it!
So- the garlic. Here it is, minced up and ready to go.
These gorgeous pork chops. They've been salt + peppered on both sides.
The broccoli was already in florets! I didn't even need to get them. Love it. They went on a pan after I smothered them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and then sprinkled them with parm. Off to the oven they went for 16 minutes.
While the broccs were in the oven, I made the super easy pesto butter by combining... you guessed it... pesto and butter (with a pinch of salt)!
The gorgeous chops went into the frying pan with some olive oil where I cooked them for 6 minutes per side.
By this time, the broccoli came out of the oven all toasty and browned.
After plating, the pesto butter went on top of the pork chop, like so. Simple. Elegant.
I haven't had a pork chop in a long time, so trimming the fat off of it was a bit of a downer, but dang if it wasn't juicy and moist. This was a great portion size too.
Verdict: I tried to step a little bit outside of my normal chicken, steak + salmon zone this week with Home Chef and it paid off. While I did choose a salmon poke bowl for my no-cook meal to push me over the free shipping threshold, I branched out with Italian sausage and pork chop recipes, both containing pesto by accident. Both were really easy to make and used minimal ingredients and cookware which made my life easier. Everything tasted wonderful and made excellent leftovers for my roommate the next day.
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 $55.78 for this box, each dinner was $9.95 per serving, and the poke bowl was $7.99 per serving with free shipping.
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What do you think of my Home Chef choices this week?
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