Home Chef

Introduction

The Home Chef meal delivery service is more than just a meal kit. It is a lifestyle choice for people who enjoy healthy home-cooked meals, without the stress that comes with having to plan meals ahead and pick up groceries. We left no stone unturned with our Home Chef review for 2019 and with their weekly rotations of recipes, there will always be a delicious new meal to turn to – with fresh ingredients delivered to your front door. When it comes to cooking the fresh Home Chef meals, keep calm and stress-free with simple step-by-step recipes that will have dinner ready to eat in about 30 minutes – from just $9.95 per serving.

Pros

• Personalized meal options and great suggestions based on preferences
• Perfectly portioned meals
• Enjoy fresh, healthy meals while learning to cook

Cons

• Delivers to only 98% of the USA
• Fewer options for vegan customers

Home Chef is Perfect for

• People like me that lack the skills to plan, organize, and prepare food from scratch in the kitchen!
• Anyone who is wanting to learn how to cook, and open their taste buds to exciting new dishes
• Athletes or people that need to pay close attention to their diets and take responsibility for what they are putting into their bodies (Home Chef would have saved me so many headaches back in College!)

Home Chef is not for

• Anyone that is looking for simple meals that are microwaved or heated from the packaging
• Anyone that is not patient enough (dinner in less than 30 minutes though!) to prepare healthy meals with easy-to-follow recipes 

5 Favorite Home Chef Meals

Korean Pork Noodle Bowl with Green Beans and Red Bell Pepper

Fresh green beans with ground pork and tasty lo mein (did you know that ‘lo mein’ means “tossed noodles”) noodles tossed about in a spicy sauce mixed from teriyaki and gochujang.

• Preparation and cooking time: 35-45 minutes
• Difficulty level: Easy
• 6 Portion Meal: $7.49 per portion
• Nutritional Information (per serving)
  • Calories 622
  • Carbohydrates 70g
  • Fat 24g
  • Protein 31g
  • Sodium 1559mg

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Cheeseburger Flatbread with Pickles, Mozzarella, and Arugula

A wonderful fusion of pizza pie and a juicy cheeseburger. Be impressed, this one is worth doing for the Instagram pic alone! Ground beef and cheese topped off with tomatoes, arugula, pickles and a slightly tangy dressing. Ready for the table, to hit your lips in 30 minutes!

• Preparation and cooking time: 20-30 minutes
• Difficulty level: Easy
• Serves 2
• Nutritional Information (per serving)
  • Calories 934
  • Carbohydrates 74g
  • Fat 48g
  • Protein 49g
  • Sodium 1999mg

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Louisiana Chicken and Gravy with Cheesy Grits

A testament to the great south! While Saints fans are undoubtedly still upset about ‘the call’, we don’t see a flag being raised on this one. This gritty chicken classic has the smoky and spicy flavor profile you’d expect on the bayou – mama will like this one – ready in just 15 minutes.

• Preparation and cooking time: 10-15 minutes
• Difficulty level: Easy
• Serves 2
• Nutritional Information (per serving)
  • Calories 605
  • Carbohydrates 43g
  • Fat 24g
  • Protein 46g
  • Sodium 1684mg

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Bone-In Pork Chop and Jalapeño Cheddar Biscuits with Broccoli and Chive Crema

Paying homage to a classic dinner meal that’s just a little bit fancy! This meal comes together with every bite complementing the next, from short spicy bursts to fresh broccoli and the crispy snaps of the flaky biscuits. Which had me wondering if Home Chef has a meal of just these Jalapeño Cheddar Biscuits alone!

• Preparation and cooking time: 30-40 minutes
• Difficulty level: Easy
• Serves 2
• Nutritional Information (per serving)
  • Calories 822
  • Carbohydrates 48g
  • Fat 48g
  • Protein 50g
  • Sodium 1730mg

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Pork & Poblano Tamale Pie and Cornbread-Cheddar Crust with Chipotle Ranch Romaine Salad

As a lover of pies, this recipe would have been a hit when I entertained the in-laws this past weekend. A decent-sized meal is full of rich, savory, and cheesy goodness! With ground pork to go with crisp greens and topped off with cornbread which is that cheesy and such a hit, you might just want to save the recipe and make a side dish as well!

• Preparation and cooking time: 50-60 minutes
• Difficulty level: Intermediate
• 6 Portion Meal: $7.49 per portion
• Nutritional Information (per serving)
  • Calories 675
  • Carbohydrates 53g
  • Fat 38g
  • Protein 30g
  • Sodium 1060mg

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What’s unique about Home Chef?

As a customer in modern society, we are blessed with choices for every aspect of our lives. With so many meal delivery kit subscription companies across the world, the competition is higher than ever for companies like Home Chef. 

While success for these services means standing out from the crowd, the real winner from a crowded market is you and I, the customers!

To their credit, Home Chef homed in on their unique selling point for customers like you and me – far too many times I get home late from the office and see the defrosting steak (still) in the sink and let out a big sigh. So, what are the next things out of my mouth?

“Kids, who wants Ramen again?”

Just this morning I was pumped for a nice steak dinner – and then life happened. While this was affecting my stomach (and making my weight fluctuate for all the wrong reasons), it was taking a more significant toll on my mental health.

So, back to Home Chef because that is why we are here, Home Chef provides fresh ingredients and for delicious meals complete with easy-to-understand recipes straight to your door.

But that’s what all these meal delivery companies do right? Correct. But Home Chef does more, these aren’t just a list of meals to pick from that are being mass-produced like a Nike factory for food. The Home Chef meals are explicitly personalized to the customer, and if you are like me and were horribly uncultured growing up, trying new dishes is always hard. 

Home Chef creates a flavor profile for you on signup, which helps them to suggest meals that suit your taste, and any essential dietary needs! The survey even has optional preferences for low-caloric diets or low-carb, which is excellent for followers of the Ketogenic diet!

Now, although freshly delivered ingredients solve so many of my problems, there was still one big issue. How do I find the time to cook a Pork and Poblano Tamale Pie? Somedays I feel like I wouldn’t have the time or energy even to read the name of that pie! 

This is where it gets sweeter, these Home Chef meals are effortless to follow, and most of the meals are prepared and in mouths in around 30 minutes! Plus, no wastage! The meals are portioned perfectly with the right amount of ingredients needed to suit the recommended portions.

Oven Ready Home Chef meals

The team at Home Chef continue to make mealtime that extra-bit special for their customers. Their new range of Oven Ready meals is a unique offering for the meal kit space, providing customers with absolutely everything needed for a high-quality meal without the preparation and mess (no dishes!).

With the Oven Ready meals that Home Chef have commenced adding to every menu – they send customers everything needed to make the meal – even the cooking tray! So far, Home Chef has at least one Oven Ready meal added to every menu (which are indicated with the blue ‘Oven-Ready’ tag on the menu), with more being added very soon!

Check out this example of one of the great Oven Ready Home Chef meals.

Pretzel Crusted Pork Chop with Mustard Potatoes and Peas

Manage your macros with Home Chef

The Home Chef meal plans are clear, and their recipes are simple-to-follow with each recipe consisting of a step-by-step guide (including pictures for people like me who need visual components!). Cooking with the Home Chef ingredients and guides makes it hard to screw up – I am sure some people will manage to do something wrong though.

When it comes to the science of eating (which I am not a fan of, but my partner is always counting her protein), Home Chef makes counting your macros easy thanks to their recipe cards which specify the calories, carbohydrates, fat, protein, and sodium in each meal.

Customize your meals with Home Chef

With the unique ‘every customer is different’ approach of Home Chef, there is the choice to personalize meals and make them uniquely yours. Whether it is upgrading meats, doubling-up, or swapping out proteins on select meals – your meal is your choice at Home Chef.

Something I love to do to customize my Home Chef meal is to swap out the protein in the fajitas – so swapping out the chicken and replacing with beef for a unique steak-like fajita that our house loves, it is that easy!

With the option to plan up to five weeks ahead or change it up and take a week off if you know that you will be away sipping cocktails in the Caribbean.

Environmentally friendly

Climate change is real, and it was excellent to receive the insulated Home Chef box with its environmentally friendly packaging. The Home Chef Box is lined with recycled, compostable, and biodegradable textile fibers as well as including gel ice packs inside to keep ingredients fresh.

It is worth mentioning that while checking out some of the conversations about Home Chef online, we found some customer reviews that referred to damaged gel ice packs and soggy leafy greens. While this is concerning, it did seem to be a trend that was happening in the extreme heat.

Interestingly, many of these reviews mentioned that they had been enjoying months of excellent service from Home Chef, and then they had the unfortunate experience. Of course, many of these customers didn’t bother to take the time to leave positive reviews while everything was smooth running! 

Must be human nature only to speak up when things are not perfect?

These issues with the heat and differences in the quality of products seem to be few and far between, with the prominent positive being that the Home Chef customer service team are very attentive and issue partial or full refunds depending on the circumstances.

How to get started with Home Chef

1. Signup

Visit the Home Chef website and get started on your meal plan by registering your free account and entering your personal information.

2. Complete the survey and customize your meal plan

Fill out the quick and easy survey to help Home Chef personalize your menu options. By selecting how many people you are cooking for, how many times a week you will be cooking, any dietary preferences like low-calorie or low-carb, and what type of food-eater you are (i.e. omnivore, carnivore, pescatarian, or vegetarian). This is also where you can let Home Chef know if there are any products you want to avoid.

3. Choose your delivery date

You are getting close to the good part, just enter your delivery information and pick your delivery date from the current menu or the next menu – helpful for planning ahead.

4. Pick your meals

Once you have arranged payment, you are ready to select your first delivery of Home Chef meals. There are 18 tasty meals to choose from every week, so be sure to whet your appetite and see what you like.

Meal options & specialty diets

Home Chef meals provide a variety of meal options that would be suitable for people with dietary restrictions or preferences. Some of these ingredients and options include:

• Low-calorie
• Low-carbohydrate
• Dairy-free
• Gluten-free
• Soy-free
• Wheat-free
• Nut-free
• Vegetarian
• Breakfast meals
• Beef
• Pork
• Seafood (fish and shellfish)
• Poultry

During signup, Home Chef gets you to fill out a quick survey that builds your unique flavor profile. When choosing your meals, there are options to select plans depending on how many people you are cooking for, either 2, 4, or 6 people as well as how many times a week you would like to cook, either 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6.

For families with kids, Home Chef suggests that children’s portions be counted as a half portion when ordering, which is helpful to avoid overordering on meals!

There are over 18 meals to select from each week and some quick 5-minute smaller meals ideal for lunch. Upgrading your meal will also let you include a smoothie or seasonal fruit basket at $4.95 per serving.

Just remember that the meals you must pick from each week are affected by your flavor profile that was set up during signup. This can be changed by going into your account details.

For the fancier options, there are also premium meals to select from each week. These premium options come at a much higher cost and do require more involvement during the cooking and preparation phase.

How much does Home Chef cost?

The Home Chef pricing is very competitive, and for the standard of meals that you will be preparing, the cost is significantly less than going out and eating the same delicious meals.

There are a few serving options available but prices per serving work out to be $9.95 per serving, which you can check out in our breakdown of meal costs for the week. 

Home Chef delivers to over 98% of the United States, so unless you are hiding out in the dark woods you will likely be fine for delivery. When signing up the form checks your postcode and will let you know if you are ineligible for delivery.

Shipping costs are $10 per order, however, if your order is over $49 shipping is free.

How long do Home Chef meals last?

Each of the Home Chef meals has its own timeframe for cooking. Many of the meals say to cook within 5 days, so keep this in mind when planning what you will be eating. The preparation use-by information is found in the recipe card.

What comes in the Home Chef box?

Every delivery will feel like Christmas! Opening your Home Chef box and seeing what is inside never gets old. Inside the box, you will find an insulated lining and gel cooling packs to keep food fresh. Each meal in the box will also include the necessary recipe printed on the colored card that can be attached to your very own Home Chef ring binder.

There is no room for error with the ingredients, they are all separated in clearly-labeled packaging with the meats having their own package with extra cooling packs.

Home Chef Customer Support

Kudos to the customer support team at Home Chef, whether it is the fast and actionable handling of customer complaints or their constructive and detailed frequently asked questions section. The Home Chef team are useful and are covering all bases.

Reach out to them via the live chat on their website or message their team directly on social media at:

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Instagram

Home Chef Conclusion

Home Chef is an excellent meal delivery subscription that focuses on providing its customers with a unique experience. There are no glamorous meals, although the meals are exciting and there will always be something new to try. Their service does not aim to be the best source of organic, pro-local-farmer, superfood-based ingredients. 

Simply put, Home Chef aims to replace the ‘chef’ at home, with easy-to-follow, no-nonsense alternatives by providing every customer with a unique meal plan that matches the food they enjoy. For professionals and stretched-thin parents (raises a hand!), Home Chef will be a savior as they nail their promise of reducing wastage, giving back the time that you are trading away, and getting people together over a delicious home-cooked meal.

What are people saying?