Home Chef February 2016 Meal Subscription Review & Coupon

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home chef february 2016 boxWe ordered a three-meal box from Home Chef this week, and we simply couldn’t resist getting breakfast as one of our three choices.  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 us loving this subscription — currently this is the least expensive and has the most choice out of any similar major subscriptions (for 2 people).

home chef february 2016 IMG_6273Your 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 usually requires very little from your own pantry — 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 even sent a bottle of oil when we were shallow-frying our hushpuppies in a previous box.

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Everything arrived within well-insulated cooler padding, atop ice packs.

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The meat is placed in the bottom of box and packed with several ice packs.  I suspect there are enough to keep it cold for a long time, even when summer arrives.

Daily Chef has far more meal options than other meal kit subscriptions.  The meals were more accessible than the other meal kit subscription boxes, which tend to cater to the foodie crowd.  This subscription has plenty of flavor and variety, but it uses more familiar ingredients.

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The recipe cards 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.

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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 in layman’s terms, or expounding on the benefits of specific techniques.  The only minor annoyance is the adherence to a 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 (e.g. not pre-heating your oven thirty minutes prior to warming a few tortillas), but for novices we recommend following the directions exactly so you don’t get flustered or lose your place. The recipe cards have pre-punched holes so you can store them in a recipe binder.

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Each recipe was packed separately, and neatly, in its own bag.  We like to unpack a bit, separating the refrigeration-required and pantry-permissive items.   FYI, this box cost $59.40.  Unless otherwise stated, the pictures of prepared food show one of the two servings.

home chef february 2016 IMG_6278 Beef and Cheese Enchiladas With Sour Cream, Sweet Corn, and Cheese. 30 mins, easy, 935 cal.Beef and Cheese Enchiladas With Sour Cream, Sweet Corn, and Cheese

We really enjoyed the enchiladas.  We are a bit biased, since we absolutely adore Mexican food (both “authentic” and the various American interpretations thereof).  We tend to prefer flour tortillas to corn, even when fresh-made, but this preparation worked very well with corn tortillas.  This dish was very easy to prepare and was shockingly not super spicy, even with ground, fresh, and stewed hot peppers in the mix.

home chef february 2016 IMG_6279 Parmesan-Crusted Sirloin With Balsamic-Thyme Onions, Roasted Potatoes, and Charred Snap Peas. 40 mins, intermediate, 854 cal.

Parmesan-Crusted Sirloin With Balsamic-Thyme Onions, Roasted Potatoes, and Charred Snap Peas

This dish was a little over the top — the sides were lovely, and the steak could have stood on its own.  The combination of a buttery Parmesan crust and a sweet onion relish provided a culinary embarrassment of riches. Though very elegant, this dish was also relatively simple to put together.

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Cannoli French Toast With Pistachios, Chocolate, and Bacon. 30 mins, easy, 915 cal.

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The most interesting French toast we’ve ever made.  The toast themselves were not very decadent (we didn’t begin with a brioche or specialty bread, and they weren’t saturated in egg mixture prior to cooking).  They did, however, work well for containing the mountain of ricotta filling.  this recipe was a bit of a kitchen sink approach, incorporating both pistachios and chocolate chips in the filling, and using syrup and powdered sugar for the topping. I think the dish would have been better with just pistachios or chips in the filling.  The bacon was a great touch.  Home Chef uses really nice bacon, and it cooked perfectly just on a cookie sheet.  It complemented the creamy ricotta perfectly.

Home Chef has been an incredibly enjoyable subscription for us — the food has been great, and relatively easy to prepare.  The hardest part is picking out our meals from so many delicious options, and not overeating, because the portions are very generous!  We are also loving that they offer breakfast selections (we grab one for a weekend breakfast) and a fruit basket, since we are often too busy to spend much time shopping for those, either.

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!

The Subscription: Home Chef
The Description: Receive fresh ingredients and visual, step-by-step recipe cards on your selected delivery day every week. Cook like a seasoned chef in your own kitchen with ease.
The Price: $60.00 every week
See Home Chef in the Hello Subscription Box Directory!
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The Reviews: See all our Home Chef Reviews.

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  • Heat7918
    03.03.16

    I think this is the 1st time (in 4 weeks I’ve been subscribing) that I got one, actually two, of the same meals you did! We really enjoyed the enchiladas – yum! We got the breakfast too but I think I expected the cream with chocolate chips to be sweeter… like a cannoli (favorite dessert EVER – when done right) and was hoping to not need to use the syrup. Still good though.

    Like Jenn, I started getting Home Chef thanks to you. 🙂

    • Brandy
      03.03.16

      I’m so happy Tom’s reviews are helpful! We had the pretzel chicken tonight! I loved the french toast, but I can’t stand it too sweet in the morning.

  • Jenn
    03.01.16

    I always look forward to your Home Chef reviews… I chose to join because of them. THANK YOU!!!

    • Brandy
      03.01.16

      did you get your first box yet? the food is so good! and it makes SO MUCH.

      • Jenn
        03.01.16

        I have not… It’s coming this Friday, and I couldn’t be more excited! I’m only cooking for myself, so I opted for the 2-meal plan. Since it seems to make so much, the leftovers will be perfect for lunches during the week! I have tried a different meal program in the past, and it really made me love cooking and food more than I ever did — they make it SO easy! I’m impressed with Home Chef’s low prices and variety of recipes!