Home Chef is a meal kit subscription that delivers a weekly box of the pre-portioned ingredients needed 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 my customized plan that includes:
- A mix of 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),
- And a 5-minute lunch ($7.99 per serving) for a $65.68 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. Shipping is $10 for orders less than $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 June 2019 Review
When you first sign up for Home Chef, you take a short quiz about your meal preferences and dietary restrictions. They ask what you like to eat, as well a what you tend 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. There are also some “Add-On” items like fruit, smoothies, or quick lunches that you can choose to include in your box.
Let’s talk about what came in that green envelope.
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I received a generous wine voucher from nakedwines.com, a small advertisement for Geico, $25 off a Trunk Club order, and a promo offer for 2 video doorbells from Ring. If you’re not familiar with Naked Wines, check out Megan’s review about the company that sends all of those vouchers in subscription boxes!
Now, onto the packaging situation:
This month’s box was cushioned and insulated with packaging comprised entirely of recycled water bottles. The whole lining can be placed in a curbside recycling bin, in locations that accept RIC 1 recyclables. Easy enough!
Beneath the insulated flap lies all of this month’s meals, neatly packaged into individual, recyclable bags with convenient handles and slide-zip closures.
Underneath the ingredient bags is a cardboard divider that keeps the meats separated from everything else.
And beneath the cardboard divider is a reusable/recyclable ice pack, which keeps the chicken breasts nice and chilled. Also, check out the view of that handy insulated lining!
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As previously mentioned, every 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 also labeled with the title of each recipe for clarity. They really thought of everything!
Jalapeño Popper Chicken Breast with Crispy Onion Potatoes
Calories: 614 per serving
Time to Table, According to Home Chef: 25-35 minutes
Actual Time to Table: 47 minutes
Cook within: 5 days
Difficulty: Easy
Spice Level: Mild
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This was the first meal I’ve ever ordered from Home Chef that comes complete with an aluminum tray for easy prep and cleanup. The tray was a little mangled in transit, but it was easy enough to push back into shape. I’m a fan!
To get things started, all I had to do was toss the cooked potatoes and sliced red onions into the bottom of the tray. I didn’t add any salt in this step like the recipe suggested, because the sodium was already pretty high in the nutrition facts.
On top of the vegetables, I placed the two chicken breasts, followed by a generous sprinkle of the seasoning blend, cream cheese, diced jalapeños, and a ton of cheddar cheese.
Everything went into a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes to start. I removed the chicken, tested the internal temperature with a thermometer, and the breasts were about 145 degrees in the middle instead of 165. I tossed the tray back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes to bring up the temperature, so that’s why it took me so long to complete, despite its promised completion time of 25-35 minutes.
All that said, this meal was delicious, and really could not have been any easier! I was so excited to eat it that I started cutting into it right away, only to remember several bites in that the dish still needed to be garnished with crispy onions, so that’s why they’re not pictured. Oops. On my big plate, the serving size seems small, but it was a great size for a responsibly-portioned dinner. I’ll definitely consider making this again, and will keep my eyes peeled for more tray-style offerings on future Home Chef menus.
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BBQ Mushroom Flatbread with Ranch Drizzle and Cilantro
Calories: 750 per serving
Time to Table, According to Home Chef: 25-35 minutes
Actual Time to Table: 42 minutes
Cook within: 7 days
Difficulty: Easy
Spice Level: Not Spicy
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Home Chef frequently offers flatbread recipes in their weekly meal rotations, so this time I took the bait. At first glance, the ingredients didn’t seem like enough food for dinner, so I made it for lunch one afternoon.
To start, I preheated my oven to 400 degrees. Then, I cleaned up the mushrooms with a wet paper towel and chopped ‘em into ¼” slices, sliced up the shallot, and ran a knife through the cilantro. The recipe suggested stemming the cilantro, but there’s still so much flavor in the stems! It would be a shame to toss them, so I included everything.
I par-baked the flatbreads directly on my center oven rack for 8 minutes. They browned up beautifully in all the right places.
While the flatbreads were getting roasty toasty, I cooked the mushrooms and shallots over medium-high heat with a little bit of salt, pepper, and olive oil. I let them continue cooking longer than the suggested 5-7 minute cook time to get the mushrooms browned to my likeness.
Here, I assembled the flatbreads by laying down half of the barbecue sauce as the foundation, followed by the shredded cheddar-jack cheese, and the mushroom mixture. Everything went back into the oven directly on the rack for 6 minutes.
Once everything was warmed through and melted beautifully, I drizzled the remaining barbecue sauce on top, followed by the ranch dressing, and garnished both flatbreads generously with my chopped cilantro. What a beautiful meal! I wasn’t surprised about this dish being as delicious as it was, but I was surprised to discover how filling it was. Turns out, the flatbreads are indeed a dinner-sized portion. The flatbread had a great crisp to it, the mushrooms were meaty and savory, and the combination of barbecue sauce, ranch, and cilantro was a winner. I’d order another flatbread meal again without hesitation.
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5 Minute Lunch: Crispy Beet & Goat Cheese Chicken Grain Bowl
Time to Table, According to Home Chef: 5-10 minutes
Actual Time to Table: 9 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Spice Level: Not Spicy
Home Chef sent along the incorrect recipe card for this meal, but that’s all right, considering all of the recipes are available on their website. After looking at the ingredients online, and taking a peek at everything that came out of the box, this meal didn’t seem like all that much to me. Though, as I’ve learned from some meal kit recipes, less really can be more. I did my best to keep an open mind.
I crumbled up the brown rice into a few pieces, added 2 tablespoons of water, covered the bowl with a damp paper towel, and microwaved everything for a minute and a half. The recipe suggested 2 minutes, but I have a higher-powered microwave, so less time usually does the trick for these 5-minute lunches.
I then zapped this bowl of chicken for another minute and a half.
After laying down a foundation of rice, I layered on the chicken, crunchy beet strips, crumbled goat cheese, and white balsamic dressing. This lunch really surprised me! The flavors were sophisticated and unexpected, the portion was perfect for the time of day, and it really couldn’t have been any easier to put together. The dressing was a punchy, tangy complement to the savory chicken and creamy goat cheese. Also, the crunchy beet strips were a real winner. I’ll probably order a container to keep in my pantry.
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Calories: 301 per serving
Time to Table, According to Home Chef: 5-10 minutes
Actual Time to Table: 7 minutes
Cook within: 7 days
Difficulty: Easy
Spice Level: Not Spicy
I just can’t help but add a smoothie to my Home Chef order every month. There’s something really nice about waking up on a weekend morning, rolling out of bed, and having a smoothie to kick off the day.
Here are all the ingredients, including the two cups of ice needed in step two.
To the blender, I added all of the ingredients (sans ice) to blend for a little less than 2 minutes. The recipe card says to blend for 3-4 minutes, but my borderline-vintage blender is tough and can have everything nice and homogenized in half the time.
I added in the two cups of ice and blended it all for another 2 minutes until smooth as can be.
Oh, this was so good. And, following suit with the other 3 recipes, it was incredibly easy! The combination of pineapple, coconut milk, oranges, and mangoes really made me feel like I was at the beach, but in reality, I was eating a frozen pizza on my couch. Paradise takes many shapes, I suppose.
Verdict: My Home Chef experience this month was fantastic. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—this is my favorite meal delivery kit I’ve tried. The packaging is organized and almost entirely recyclable, the recipes are very easy to follow, and all of the meals I picked were a home run. Plus, the option of adding smoothies and 5-minute lunches can’t be beat. Although the meals themselves don’t cost less than procuring the ingredients at a grocery store, they do cost considerably less than ordering similar items from a restaurant, and that has certainly helped some of my takeout habits. My favorite meal was the jalapeño popper chicken, but everything was delicious. If you’re going to try a meal delivery kit, I highly recommend this one. Bravo, Home Chef!
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.
Value Breakdown: At $65.68 for this box, each dinner was $9.95 per serving, the smoothie was $4.95 per serving, and the chicken grain bowl was $7.99 per serving (with free shipping). Per Marne’s advice, it’s always a good idea to get at least one add-on since it pushes you over the free shipping threshold.
Check out all of our Home Chef reviews and find other meal kit boxes in the Food Subscription Box Directory!
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What did you get from Home Chef this month?
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