March 2016 Home Chef Review & Coupon

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home chef march 2016 boxOne of our Home Chef meals this week gave us the opportunity to dust off the fondue set!  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).

Each weekly parcel has nearly every ingredient needed to make your selected meals.   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 goes above and beyond, including 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 usually have a pro-tip or explain some cooking terminology.  The cards adhere to a standard prep order (i.e.:  preheat oven, chop veg, prep meat) — but we often switch up the order to optimize our prep time. 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.

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English Pub Steak With Oven Fries, Malt Vinegar Mayo, and Smashed Peas. 40 mins, intermediate, 963 cal.

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I loved this meal — simple ingredients prepared nicely.  The steak was great, and the shallot-beef sauce further enhanced the flavor.  The french fries cooked superbly, and my two favorite fry condiments were combined to form the ultimate fry dip.  Perhaps the biggest surprise was the peas — they were incredibly flavorful, despite having only a bit of butter and salt.  This dish was simple, fairly quick to prepare, and very satisfying.

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Pretzel-Crusted Chicken With Savory Bread Pudding and Green Beans. 40 mins, intermediate, 778.

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The timing on this dish was a bit of an annoyance, since the bread pudding prep alone involved pre-toasting, soaking, cooking, and cooling.  It was very tasty, and probably my favorite recipe to use sun-dried tomatoes.  The chicken maintained a very pretzel-like appearance, but the flavor of the mustard and pretzel was fabulous.  This meal had a bit of a thanksgiving feel for me, with the poultry and stuffing combo.  Really great flavors and textures.

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Swiss Fondue for Two With Pretzel Bread, Broccoli, Tomatoes, and Apples. 35 mins, intermediate, 586.

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This was a really fun meal!  It was pretty easy to put together, and the sauce was so rich that it made for a very filling meal.  This is a great dish to serve with wine as an appetizer for six.  The recipe made a flavorful and very smooth fondue that complemented each item served. And this made a veritable boatload of food!

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 most weeks) 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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  • Dawn S
    03.09.16

    I currently use Hello Fresh and I love them. I tried Green Chef and Plated as well but Hello Fresh is my go to. That being said I wish Home Chef was out here in California! I really love seeing the different recipes that you get with more of a down home feel.