Home Chef Review & Coupon – February 2017

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Home Chef is a meal in a box subscription – every week, you choose from a variety of recipes and have all the ingredients and preparation instructions delivered to your door. The basic concept is the same as other weekly meal delivery services, but it has its own unique features and recipes.

Home Chef has a huge selection of meal options to choose from each week, including some Asian, Indian, African, and South American inspired dishes among their more traditional American home-style and steakhouse fare, and the portions are the most generous among the meal kit subscriptions we review regularly!

In addition to the many great dinner options (available in 2, 4, 0r 6 servings), they also offer breakfast selections, smoothies, and a fruit basket (which we have been very happy with whenever we’ve gotten it).

Meal selections are suggested automatically according to a profile you fill out noting your family’s preferences, but you can change your selections any time. 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 portions are huge, and this is currently the least expensive and has the most choice out of any similar major subscriptions (for 2 people) – $9.95 per person per selection (they typically have one meal a week that’s a premium meal).

DEAL: Get $30 of free food when you sign up – just use this link to get the deal!

The food is packed in puffy, padded cooler pads, with each meal packed in a separate bag containing nearly everything needed to make a complete meal. The box is always packed with several ice packs.

The recipe cards display prep time, difficulty, a “best cooked by” time frame, and even a spice level. There is also a list of stuff you may need from your own kitchen such as cookware and salt and pepper. You have to have a basic kitchen set-up (stove/oven, cookware, etc.), but a couple tablespoons of cooking oil and salt and pepper are usually the only ingredients you have to have at home – they even include liquid egg (instead of expecting you to have eggs on hand), and oil for shallow-frying when a recipe calls for more than a few tablespoons worth.

The back of the card has the actual recipe guidance, complete with pictures and bold-facing of ingredients. The recipes are accompanied by pro-tips and explanations of cooking terminology and techniques. The tips appear in a sidebar so they don’t clutter the actual recipe. I love that they include a heads-up for when ingredients are divided and used in different parts of the dish.

The prep is done is a sensible order, with long lead time items first. This helps everything finish cooking close to the same time. The recipe cards have pre-punched holes so you can store them in a recipe binder, but we usually prefer to just wait till the recipe is offered again instead of attempting to gather the ingredients to recreate it ourselves.

Each recipe was packed separately, and neatly, in its own bag, except for a few larger items. Unless otherwise noted, each of the pictures of prepared food below shows one of two servings made by each recipe.

Sherry Wine Demi-Glace Sirloin Steak With Mashed Potatoes And Balsamic Brussels Sprouts. 25-35 minutes, easy, 700 calories per serving.

This was a very straightforward take on the classic steak-potato-cruciferous veg trio, albeit with the holiday season favorite Brussels sprouts standing in for the typical broccoli. The sprouts were livened up by a splash of balsamic and a liberal dusting of Parmesan.  The steak was deeply flavored, with the demi an almost superfluous indulgence. The cream-laden potatoes were just perfect (done properly, the humble potato can always steal the show). This dish was simple to make and sure to please steakhouse purists.

Denver Omelette Breakfast Muffins With Sausage, Cheddar, And Green Pepper. 30-40 minutes, easy, 670 calories per serving.

Very simple to make and full of flavor, these mini omelette muffins were great. They also reheat well, so the extras made great fast breakfast bites during the week. Comprising very few ingredients, this dish packed lots of flavor and an ideal omelette texture. Very tasty!

Pine Nut & Goat Cheese Bucatini Alfredo With Garlic Bread. 25-35 minutes, easy, 981 calories per serving.

I loved the use of goat cheese here – it gave depth and a rich, creamy, mellow flavor to the sauce without overpowering it. The peas, red peppers, and toasty pine nuts added pops of flavor, separating this dish from run-of-the-mill tomato sauce or oily offerings. Bucatini is a fabulous pasta choice for this meal – lots of bite and chew, and great at grabbing the sauce. Great, simple dish with little knife work needed.

Alsatian Tart Flatbread With Caramelized Onions, Swiss Cheese, And Apples. 35-45 minutes, easy, 793 calories per serving.

We love naan-style pizzas, and this rendition was unique and delicious. I was amazed at how satisfying and delicious it was without meat and going easy on the cheese.  The key was the wonderful balance of flavors – a bit of richness, coupled with sweet, savory, a hint of bitter, some toasted nuttiness, and some pungent herbs. This was a delightful artisan pie that was filling enough to make a meal, yet was fun and brightly flavored.

Have you tried Home Chef? What did you think of your meals?

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