February 2016 Home Chef Review & $30 Coupon

Home Chef is a meal in a box subscription – every week choose from a variety of recipes and have all the ingredients and preparation instruction delivered to your door.  It’s similar in concept to other weekly meal delivery services, but it has its own unique features and perspectives.

When you sign up you fill out a mini profile of your family and tastes so Home Chef can automatically suggest a weekly menu for you, which you are welcome to change. The selections for this meal subscription are much larger than what is available for other meal kits.  While most meal kits focus on a handful of elegant dinner entrees and the occasional desert, with each designed for two people, Home Chef offers an incredible 10 selections available for 2, 4, or 6 people, a breakfast choice, a smoothie choice, and a fruit basket selection.  The plethora of great choices has me loving this subscription — currently this is the least expensive and has the most choice out of any similar major subscriptions (for 2 people).

Your weekly parcel contains your recipe cards and all the ingredients for your meals, bundled inside insulated packaging with big ice packs to keep it cold.  Home Chef has tended to require less of a contribution from your own larder than the other subscriptions — while every box has you provide a couple tablespoons of cooking oil and salt and pepper, Home Chef has gone out of its way to provide everything else you need.  They usually include liquid egg when needed (other boxes expect you to have an egg or two on hand), and they have even been known to send a bottle of oil when shallow-frying was called for.

The meat is placed in the bottom of box and packed with several ice packs.  Even if you neglect to unbox the package right away, the meat will remain very cold.

When my welcome email arrived along with suggested meals, I was really impressed by all of the alternatives offered. I ended up keeping two of the suggested recipes and replacing the third. Since this was the first time I ordered from Home Chef, they sent me an attractive 3-ring binder to organize all of  my Home Chef recipes–a nice touch! The recipe pages that come with each box have all the info we like to see — prep time, difficulty, and allergen and nutrition info.  They also included a drink pairing suggestion (something other boxes have dabbled in but not stuck with), and a “best cooked by” time frame. I especially liked how the prep time includes the time it takes to actually chop up all the veggies. I’m regularly frustrated by recipes that list chopped veggies in their ingredient lists, thereby leaving that prep time out of the total allotted time for the recipe.

The back of the card has the actual recipe guidance, complete with pictures and boldfacing of ingredients, and an inventory of everything provided.  The recipes had great hints littered throughout — either expanding your cooking vocabulary by explaining cooking terminology (often medieval French) in layman’s terms, or expounding on the benefits of specific techniques. The recipe cards arrive with pre-punched holes so you can store them in the Home Chef recipe binder.

Each recipe was packed separately, and neatly, in its own bag.  I decided to keep all of the contents in its bag and stick the two bags I wasn’t immediately using into the refrigerator–super easy!

Brown Butter Risotto with Brussels Sprouts, Sage and Pecans. 35 mins, easy, 771 cal, vegetarian, gluten-free.

Although I have cooked off and on for years, I have always been too intimidated to make risotto. I’m not sure why; although I had heard it was easy to make, I guess I always associated it with fancy dinners which meant one thing: difficult. When I saw it pop up as an option for home chef, I decided to take the plunge. And I’m thrilled I did! The risotto was delicious. Yes, it was labor intensive for twenty minutes or so, but it was totally worth it! I loved its creamy texture and the delicious interplay of the stock, wine and cheese. Yum! While I liked the texture of the brussels sprouts, when I make this dish again, I’m going to try to amp up their flavor a bit, carrying the wine and butter over to the sprouts and increasing the amount of salt and pepper added for seasoning. The addition of goat cheese as a garnish offered a welcome depth of flavor to the dish.

While not offering huge portions, this dish was surprisingly filling.

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Zucchini and Yellow Squash Ribbons. 35 mins, intermediate, 514 cal, low calorie, low carb, gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free.

The highlight of this dish was the veggies. They were phenomenal. They’re the one component of any of these meals that I would not dare mess with. Super easy, I hope to make these weekly, at the very least. My only disappointment was that they were not more plentiful. The next time around, I’ll double the recipe for three people. The chicken turned out a little bland. I loved how easy it was to make, however. Next time, I’ll season even more liberally with salt and pepper and will exchange the ricotta for a true cheese with a bit more flavor: goat cheese, perhaps?

Home Chef suggested pairing this meal with a Chardonnay. I took the occasion to whip out a bottle of Shafer Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay, my favorite! What a festive end to the day!

Cauliflower Bucatini With Brown Butter Mustard Sauce. 35 mins, intermediate, 834 cal. Vegetarian.

I was excited to try this dish as I had never before even thought of pairing mustard with pasta; it intrigued me. Although I won’t make this dish as-is again, I will try to play around with the recipe in the future. The cauliflower was easy to cook and turned out great! Next time, I’ll add more seasoning. The noodles were a welcome change from the typical spaghetti. Slightly more substantial, they were very fun to eat. My toddler kept trying to eat my husband’s out of his bowl. Overall, though, the dish turned out a bit dry. Next time around, I’ll cut back on the mustard and add more butter and/or olive oil. I’ll also keep the roasted red peppers in the pantry (or heat them up before putting in the dish). I’ll also add less hot red pepper. I put in 2/3 of the packets provided, but as much as I enjoy heat, they really overpowered the dish. If making it for young children, you might even consider leaving the hot red peppers out entirely.

This meal offered the largest portions of the three meals I ordered this week. It was very filling.

As this was my first foray into home meal delivery boxes, I was extremely impressed with Home Chef. The recipes were easy to follow, quick to produce and challenged me to rethink what it’s possible to cook during the week.  Too often I succumb to PB&J for dinner when I could (and should), instead, be thinking about what I fresh food I can get on the table in 35 minutes or less. The recipes and ingredients this week all produced really nice meals while also prompting me to think about tweaks for the next go round. I think that’s really cool! And I love that there are tons of options to choose from each week.

Visit Home Chef to subscribe or find out more! Get $30 of free food when you sign up – just use this link to get the deal.