Home Chef Dinner Subscription Box Review & Coupon – December 2015

Home Chef is a dinner 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 to other weekly meal delivery services like Hello Fresh and Plated but like all of them, has its own unique features and perspectives. (We don’t typically review Blue Apron – in the past we’ve found it extremely fussy, with small portion sizes).

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 the other ones, offering 10 selections available for 2, 4, or 6 people, a breakfast choice, a smoothie choice, and a fruit basket selection. Currently this is the least expensive and has the most choice out of any similar major subscriptions, so we had to give it a try.

Your weekly parcel contains your recipe cards and all the ingredients for your meals. As this is our first review of this subscription we showed a little more packaging than we typically do. We are heavy users of meal delivery services (how else do you think we review all these boxes?- we never do any meal grocery shopping or planning if we can help it!).

Everything arrived bundled inside insulated packaging with big ice packs to keep it cold.

We were really impressed with the recipe choices — there are tons of options!  We also thought the meals were more accessible than the other meal kit subscription boxes, which tend to use lots of ancient grains, alternative greens, exotic spices, and likes to target the foodie crowd.  This subscription has plenty of flavor and variety, but it uses more familiar ingredients.

The recipe cards 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.  We like this way of stating the fridge stability of the ingredients (instead of simply telling us to eat the fish first), as it allows us to plan our order of meals however we want, while still optimizing freshness.

The back of the card has the actual recipe guidance, complete with pictures and boldfacing of ingredients.  The instructions were clear and complete, and I found them to be very thorough.  There was an inventory of ingredients provided, a listing of tools and items you provide (mainly S+P and oil), and the recipes had great hints littered throughout (like allowing the fries to cool for several minutes so they separate from the pan without losing their crust).  The only minor annoyance is the adherence to standard prep order (i.e.:  preheat oven, chop veg, prep meat) — we switch the order a bit where it makes sense. If you’re an experienced cook we do recommend cooking in the most efficient order, but for novices we recommend following the directions exactly so you don’t get flustered or lose your place.

A plastic three-ring binder is included, too, so you can keep all your favorite recipes to make on your own later.  This is really useful for this kit — I am much more likely to replicate these recipes, because they use common ingredients.

Each recipe was packed separately, and neatly, in its own bag.

We even got a dessert – a Smoothie!

The meat is placed in the bottom of box and packed with several ice packs.

Sirloin Steak and Fondant Potatoes with Chive-Horseradish Sauce, Roasted Red Pepper, and Brussels. 40 mins, 750 cal, easy, gluten-free, nut-free.

First of all, these were the biggest Brussels sprouts I have ever seen.  I expected them to be bitter, but they were exceptional and very tasty.  The potatoes were incredible, braised in stock — they had a superb texture and buttery flavor, with the seasoning all through the potato.  The horseradish sauce was tasty, and I was really surprised to see two whole steaks in the box.  I would expect to share a large steak in a two-serving box, but we received a decent-sized steak for each of us! This dish was amazing.

“Juicy Lucy” Stuffed Beef Burger With American Cheese and Seasoned Salt Fries. 40 mins, 900 cal, intermediate, nut-free.

This made a giant, juicy,  hunk of a burger.  It was a bit daunting, but it was squish-able, so we were able get it closer to mouth-sized.  The fries were great, too — I loved the tip on letting the pan cool to lessen sticking.

Don’t forget the pickles!

Brandy: This is what happens when you let your wife take the photos of your food! Tom actually made this meal but never ate it because he had a virus, so I happily enjoyed this for dinner with the kids and lunch for several days (typically a meal out of one of our dinner kits will either feed the four of us or me & Tom for dinner & lunch the next day).

Even with a couple leaks from my imperfect molding, the burger retained plenty of melty cheese!

 One-Skillet Veggie Lasagna with Zucchini, Mushrooms, and Garlic Bread. 671 cal, 50 mins, easy, nut-free.

We had one question regarding this dish:  was this really meant for only two people?  It was really tasty and had a perfect noodle/sauce/cheese ratio.  The garlic bread put it over the top.  To make it safe for those unfond of mushrooms, we laid them across the top of one side instead of mixing them in.

This was a very hearty dish.  We didn’t have an oven-safe pan available, so we built it in a casserole dish. We still have leftovers from this dish in the freezer for when we return from our Christmas vacation.

Chocolate Candy Cane Smoothie. 7 mins, 318 cal, easy, gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free.

This was an easy and fun smoothie to mix up, and the kids really loved it. Brandy wasn’t a fan – she said the candy cane didn’t go with the almond milk.

Our littlest signaled his approval of the brioche.

We were utterly blown away by how awesome this recipe/meal subscription is. We’re not getting a box this upcoming week because of holiday celebrations, but we delightedly selected meals, including a New Year’s Eve appetizer platter for next week – and 5 different dinners for the week after that (plus the kids requested we get the raspberry chia smoothie!).

Home Chef is particularly known for its accessible ingredient choices, being a bit easier to prepare, and just being more liked by a wider range of palates.  We found this to be true and we also found that it was really delicious, and the amount of food in the box is really substantial. There’s still plenty of adventurous choices to be had with Home Chef too – the menu choices just aren’t quite as out there as Plated sometimes can be.

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.