Home Chef is a meal kit subscription that delivers a weekly box of the pre-portioned ingredients needed to make 2-6 meals that feed two, four, six, or eight people. Home Chef advertises easy recipes that can be made in about 30 minutes. They offer vegetarian, gluten-free, and calorie/carb-conscious recipes.
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This is a review of my customized delivery that includes three 2-serving dinner options (3 x $9.95/serving) with $7.99 shipping, bringing the cost of this box to $67.69.
Please note that Home Chef shipping costs may vary. Some readers are charged for delivery while others report free shipping. Check your account to confirm what your shipping costs will look like, as they may be different than mine.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Home Chef
The Subscription Box: Home Chef
The Cost: Meals for 2 start at $6.99 per serving. Shipping costs $13.99 for orders under $49.99 and $7.99 for orders over $49.99. (Note that some subscribers have reported that they are not charged shipping fees. Check your account to confirm what your shipping costs will look like.)
The Products: Fresh ingredients and chef-designed recipes — everything you need to make restaurant-quality meals at home.
Ships to: 98% of the U.S. You can check to see if Home Chef delivers to your zip code while signing up.
Home Chef April 2021 Review
When you first sign up for Home Chef, you take a short quiz about your meal preferences and dietary restrictions. They ask what you like to eat, as well as what you tend to avoid. Based on your answers, Home Chef will choose recipes for you to receive each week. As is the case with most meal kit services, you can log in and hand-select the recipes you’d like to receive. Note though, that the more particular you are with your diet, the fewer options you’ll have.
Now, on to the food!
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Meal #1: Rosemary Fig Glazed Chicken with Cheddar Cornbread Muffins and Creamed Kale, 823 calories per serving
Home Chef time to table: 50-60 minutes | Actual time to table: 60 minutes
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Figs are one of my favorite fruits, so when I saw this chicken dish on the menu, I knew I had to give it a try! Before my box shipped out, I received an email from Home Chef letting me know that there would be a small tweak to the recipe:
Due to an unforeseen ingredient shortage, you will not be receiving Balsamic Fig Glaze for your Balsamic Fig Chicken recipe this week. Instead, you will receive Balsamic Glaze and Fig Spread to help replicate the originally intended Balsamic Fig Glaze ingredient.
Instead of receiving Balsamic Fig Glaze, I'd need to incorporate both Balsamic Glaze and Fig Spread into the sauce recipe.
The cooking process was straightforward; however, due to the addition of corn muffins, the prep and cook time was a little longer than usual. As instructed, I mixed up the batter (a combination of dry muffin mix, cheese, and water) got them in the oven first. While they were baking, I cooked the kale with a little water and cream sauce, pan-seared the chicken, and made the fig sauce.
This dish was really yummy! I loved the fig sauce with the chicken, and the muffins made this dinner seem a little bit more special than my standard Wednesday night dinner. (Is there anything better than hot cornbread right out of the oven?) The creamed kale was rich and tasty, and altogether this was a comforting and satisfying mid-week meal.
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Meal #2: One-Pan Greek-Style Chicken Thigh Orzo with Spinach and Feta, 771 calories per serving
Home Chef time to table: 45-55 minutes | Actual time to table: 40 minutes
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My second meal pick this week was a Greek-inspired chicken and orzo dish, and this is another meal with a slightly longer than average cooking time. (Home Chef's meals usually clock in around 25-45 minutes.) I was able to get this on the table a bit quicker than indicated, but it did take a little longer than most of the meals I receive from Home Chef.
I started out by sautéing pieces of chicken thighs until they were cooked through. I set them aside and boiled the dry orzo in a mix of water, lemon zest, and stock concentrate. When the pasta was al dente, I wilted in some spinach, stirred in the chicken, and added a little lemon juice.
I plated the orzo with an array of garnishes: feta, fresh dill, and crunchy baked red pepper slices. Meals like this are right up my alley, and I enjoyed this dish quite a lot. With hindsight, though, I would have made a couple of small tweaks. The combination of ingredients was great (I especially loved the texture of the pepper bites and the creamy feta!), but the final step in the recipe was to finish the orzo with two pats of butter. This gave the dish a nice rich flavor, but it also produced a slightly oily mouthfeel that I wasn't that jazzed about. If I make this recipe again— and I suspect I will— I think I'll cut the butter in half and add extra lemon juice to balance out the richness.
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Meal #3: Tuscan Farro Ribollita with Croutons, 629 calories per serving
Home Chef time to table: 25-35 minutes | Actual time to table: 40 minutes
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For my final menu pick, I picked Ribollita, a Tuscan vegetable stew. I got out my trusty soup pot and started by sautéing carrot and onion. I seasoned the veggies with garlic salt and then mixed in tomato paste, diced tomatoes, farro, mirepoix base, water, and kale. After all the ingredients were in, Home Chef suggested cooking the soup for 3-5 minutes before serving; however, I opted to let the soup simmer for longer to let the flavors meld a bit. I upped the simmer time to 15 minutes.
I topped each bowl with grated parmesan cheese and a few croutons, which made the dish seem a bit more special and added some nice additional texture. This soup was easy to pull together, and the flavor was spot on. The veggies were soft and tender, and the broth had a rich, tomatoey flavor that was perfect. It's funny. This is the kind of dish that I'm never super jazzed to make for dinner, but once it's in front of me, I'm thrilled. (I guess, at heart, I'm a woman with simple tastes.)
Verdict: This month's Home Chef box was pretty great. I picked out recipes with slightly longer than average cooking times, and the payoff was great. I love that one of the meals included freshly baked corn muffins, and I was happy to let the soup simmer a bit longer than recommended to build out the flavor. My favorite meal was the fig chicken, but I think the dish with the most potential is the chicken orzo. I'm going to try making it again soon with a few small tweaks (less butter! more lemon!), and I'm pretty sure it's going to be amazing.
In terms of value, this box cost $59.70 with $7.99 shipping, bringing the cost of this box to $67.69. I appreciate the convenience of having meals delivered to my door, and I never struggle to find dishes on the menu that appeal to me. Could I spend less at the grocery store and make similar dishes myself from scratch? Probably. But I think there's a lot of value in what Home Chef provides, and I love the convenience of having meal kits delivered to my front door.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, this week's meals have passed. But, you can sign up for Home Chef today and receive meals next week!
Value Breakdown: This box costs $59.70, or $9.95 per serving. Shipping is $13.99 for orders under $49.99 and $7.99 for orders over $49.99.
Check out all of our Home Chef reviews and our list of the best meal kit subscriptions! And check out our weekly meal kit menu round-up to see what's coming up on the Home Chef menu.
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