Home Chef Review

I was excited to try Home Chef. My spouse and I always look for more accessible (and healthier) ways to cook dinner after work. No one wants to spend an hour cooking after both being at work all day. That’s probably why most meal kits have become popular over the last few years.

A few other meal kits I’ve reviewed:

Wow, I didn’t realize I had done this many meal delivery service reviews. Clearly, I am always looking for ways to make cooking dinners easier. Some people are blessed with loving to cook, but I am not one of them.

About Home Chef:

Home Chef makes meals based on three serving sizes. You can choose portion sizes of 2, 4, or even 6. It’s rare to see a meal kit serving 6. It’s great if you are a larger family or two very hungry runners. For meal kits like Home Chef, we usually do feeding 4. Over the years, meal kits feeding two have never had enough food. It’s just a byproduct of running, and while, of course, more expensive, the more you workout, the more you need to eat to fuel that.

Each box contains between 2-6 different meals. I chose three meals which is also the default option.

Price:

The default option is $53.94, and you can save $20 with a discount. That comes to $7.23 per serving, which isn’t too bad. Without the deal, it’s $10.65 per serving, which is more expensive than many other meal kits. Still, $10.65 for a home-cooked and fresh meal isn’t that expensive, especially when there is meat and potatoes.

If you choose the Home Chef box that serves 6, you’ll only spend $9.26 per serving. After signing up and paying, you can view the Home Chef meal options. Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of paying before seeing my options. What if that week wasn’t too interesting to me? Home Chef has over 25 meal options, but still, I would rather be able to see them before paying. You can cancel whenever you want, but I would rather see the meals before deciding.

Home Chef Delivery Service:

A few things that make Home Chef different:

Flexible delivery date. Many meal services have you deliver on a specific date. Home Chef allows you to choose the day you want to be paid. Many meal kits only let you pay on X date (usually Monday or Tuesday), but this allows you to pay for whatever day makes the most sense for your needs (meals selected or canceled by Friday at noon).
Customizable Menu: Home Chef gives you several different options, including less than 30 minutes, calorie-conscious, etc. You can even sub-specific proteins for something else in the meal itself.

Note: Home Chef claims they have several vegetarian options, but I didn’t see them. In the 25+ meals, there was one. It seems like to have vegetarian options; you need to take out the meat. I do wish there were more vegetarian options. (My spouse prefers plant-based options). It would be nice to add more options that didn’t involve make substitutions to the actual meals (around five would be more than enough).

Home Chef Box Arrival:

Getting food is the essential part! Living in the Mojave Desert, I don’t always have high hopes for these meal kits to come as they should. I’ve had meal kits delivered that have not been packaged well and have been baking in the desert sun.

But it arrived well, and I didn’t have to worry about it. Each meal came with ice packs, and the meals were in their plastic bag, with proteins packed separately. It’s a whole lot of plastic they can probably cut down on. But Home Chef makes it easy to find the meal you are looking for. Plus, you aren’t fishing around for the ingredients in the box. This makes it a lot easier if you order six meals for six people.

Home Chef Meals:

Pork Chops and Pasta:

I was excited to try two of my favorite foods: pork chops and pasta. I found the recipe easy to make, and the pork chops and pasta were fresh. The formula also had mushrooms. I was surprised at how tender the pork chops were, and by panfrying, there were tasty.

Pesto Salmon:

I never thought to add pesto to salmon before, and I like both. I found the pesto salmon recipe to be tasty. I could have used more vegetables with them, but the salmon tasted fresh. If I were to make this again, I would probably add more vegetables or a side of bread.

Chicken:

The chicken recipe from Home Chef was my favorite, which is funny because chicken is usually one of my lesser favorite meats. It’s “fine” but never something I gravitate towards if left to myself. But maybe I just haven’t been cooking it well! I never thought to add a guacamole chicken recipe. I liked how flavorful the chicken was. Plus, the instructions to cook the chicken made it easy. Usually, I overcook the chicken, which turns out crusty, but I found this chicken recipe to be one of my favorites. I’ve already made this again.

Overall, each meal from Home Chef tasted good, and I am a huge fan. If you’re looking for a vegetarian or vegan option, you might find the Home Chef options insufficient. You can substitute meat in many choices, but there aren’t many, just vegetarian options.

Should you use Home Chef?

Pros of Home Chef:

Easy-to-follow the recipe
Able to substitute items in the meal
Prepackaged meals
Options for meals that take less time to cook
Food is delivered fresh
More traditional style meals
Over 25 meal choices per week, plus add ons
Can choose a delivery day of the week and not be bound to one day
Can cancel the Friday before at no cost

Cons of Home Chef:

Uses more plastic than many meal delivery services.
Not many vegetarian options
Slightly more expensive than other options

Home Chef Versus Freshly:

Freshly meals offer 50+ dinner options a week, plus ready-to-heat items.

Home Chef Versus HelloFresh:

Home Chef’s meals are better for those who prefer a more traditional dinner. Hello, Fresh offers exciting and unique meals that might be more complex to cook. HelloFresh was tremendous, but I felt like an incompetent cook when trying to make some recipes.

Home Chef Versus Factor Meals:

Factor Meals are faster to cook but won’t have the same homemade vibe as Home Chef Meals. The factor takes a lot less time to cook, and for many of their options, you plop it in the oven, and you’re good to go. Think high-end and fancy TV dinners.

Conclusion:

I am a fan of the Home Chef meals. I do like them, and I’ll order them again. While they have many meal options, it depends on whether I want to order again on the weekly menu. If you like a traditional meal and nothing you want to go “too crazy with,” you will likely appreciate the ease.