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. Their meal options include many great Asian, Indian, African, and South American inspired dishes, along with more traditional American home-style and steakhouse fare.
DEAL: Get $30 of free food when you sign up – just use this link to get the deal!
Let’s get cooking!
My items were kept nice and cold with this special insulation. This is more environmentally friendly than styrofoam and is just shredded cotton clothing wrapped in plastic. You can slit the plastic and throw the contents in the trash or compost and then recycle the plastic.
Everything looked good and was cold, the ice packs are doing their job!
Home Chef offers at least 10 selections available for 2, 4, or 6 people, plus a smoothie choice and a fruit basket selection. Meals for your box are suggested based on your preferences, but you can change the selections any time. The portions are large, 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 option a week that’s a premium meal and costs a little more, though).
More ice packs were under the bags and above the raw meat.
The raw meat was wrapped separately and placed in its own zipper bag to avoid cross contamination. The rest of the items were packed together depending on which recipe they belong to. I ordered two meals for two, and a smoothie add-on, which means my shipping was free!
Everything in my box! I received my box a day later than it was supposed to be delivered, and it showed up right around lunchtime. I now had two choices for lunch, and went with the Huli Huli Chicken because the bone-in breasts for the other dish were still frozen!
Each meal comes with a recipe card that lists cook time, difficulty level, spice level, and ingredients found in the box.
The back of the card lists the instructions and mentions the basic cooking items and pans you will need to provide.
Huli Huli Chicken Rice Bowl with Charred Pineapple – 40 minutes, Easy, 807 calories per serving I love pineapple and teriyaki so this caught my interest right away.
I started the rice first.
Next I prepped the veggies.
Yum, I forgot to mention I also love coleslaw!
The pineapple rings got a little bit of char going.
Then it was time to brown the breasts.
I sliced the chicken and served it with the rice and coleslaw, then drizzled with the teriyaki sauce. It was so tasty and everything was cooked perfectly!
Mojito Rubbed Bone-in Skin On Chicken with Creamy Elotes Gratin – 30-40 minutes, Intermediate, 699 calories The second meal I chose had crispy jalapenos and corn and just sounded wonderful.
I started by prepping the vegetables. It called for dicing the whole onion, but this thing was ginormous so I only chopped up half.
I sauteed the bone-in breast in an oven-safe skillet and sprinkled with some of the seasoning.
I flipped it, sprinkled with the remaining seasoning, and then placed in the oven. I have never placed a skillet in the oven, in the past I have always transferred the food to another dish before putting it in the oven but I wanted to follow the directions completely. Unfortunately, my brain kept forgetting that the pan was super hot after being in the oven and I ended up with a couple of burns. From now on, I will continue with switching to a different dish for the oven to help my poor brain keep up.
While the chicken baked, I sauteed the onions and corn in some olive oil.
When the onions had just a bit of brown I added the light cream and half of the cheese.
Next I placed the mix in a casserole dish and sprinkled with the crispy jalapenos and the rest of the cheese.
Doesn’t it look so creamy and good?
My chicken breasts were still not finished cooking after the time indicated on the card, so I flipped them over and set the timer for another 10 minutes.
This time they were done, and maybe a little over done.
I served it with the gratin and placed the limes on the side for a bright burst of freshness. All of the flavors were delicious, and even though the chicken was a little dry, my husband actually preferred it that way. He wants it over cooked!
Pineapple Passion Smoothie with Orange – 5 minutes, Easy, 242 calories I usually go for a smoothie for a substantial snack and it pushes me over into free shipping!
All I had to do was section the orange and then drop it in the blender with the passion fruit puree and pineapple. After blending I added some ice to make a slushy and it was a nice tropical treat in the middle of winter.
As always I enjoyed my meals and smoothie from Home Chef! I like the variety of meals that they offer, I order once a month and I think I’ve chosen something new every time. The shipment did arrive a day later than I had planned, but since there was no guarantee that I would receive it say, by dinnertime on the day promised, it wasn’t really a problem. Everything was fresh and in perfect condition and the chicken was well chilled. My box cost $49.70 and delivery was free. The portions were large and very fulfilling. Now I need to go check out what I want to order next month!
Have you tried Home Chef? What did you think of your meals?
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