Preparing healthy meals for yourself and your family can be a challenge—from planning the meals to shopping for groceries. Today, RSG Contributor Chonce Maddox-Rhea reviews Home Chef, a meal delivery service that gives you the food and recipes you need to create tasty meals from home.
Quick summary:
- Home Chef is great for families who like trying new things
- Each week, Home Chef provides new recipes to choose from for a wide variety
- Home Chef provides fresh foods and recipe cards to make meals easier for you
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We live in a world where most people are looking for a quicker and easier solution to everything. Eating healthy is no different. One of the easiest ways to eat healthier, whole meals is to use a meal delivery service.
That way, all your food can get delivered straight to your doorstep, and it takes the pressure off you for doing weekly grocery shopping and meal planning.
One of the best food delivery services to consider using is Home Chef.
What is Home Chef?
Home Chef is a meal delivery service that has been around since 2013 when CEO Pat Vihtelic had a vision to help bring meals to dining room tables, no matter how busy the family may be.
In a given year, Home Chef delivers 10 million meals. The company services at least 97% of the U.S. with their meal deliveries.
Home Chef gives you the option to choose from a variety of different meal kits and have them delivered to your door. The hardest part for you will probably be choosing which meals you want each week.
Home Chef takes care of the rest with pre-portioned, quality ingredients and step-by-step recipe cards that make putting the meals together pretty easy.
How Home Chef Works: Easy Sign-Up Process
Home Chef is all about allowing customers to personalize their menu options. How it works is you’ll sign up with your email address, then you can jump right into selecting the meal plans you’d like.
Choose from options like:
- Eating healthy
- Saving time
- Trying new dishes
- Improving your cooking skills
- Minimizing food waste
Next, you’ll need to list how many servings you prefer and how many meals you’ll need to have delivered per week. Meals can be for just 2 people or up to 6. You can also receive between 2 and 6 recipes plus the food to make them per week.
Home Chef has a partnership with Kroger and other stores around the country, so customers can choose to pick up their meal kits at participating locations instead of having them delivered to their homes. In fact, when signing up for a Home Chef account, you are allowed to use your Kroger login to make the sign-up process even easier.
Personally, though, I like the meal delivery option.
How Much Does Home Chef Cost?
The price of Home Chef’s meal kits depends on the meal options you choose and the size of the order. Meals start as low as $6.99 per serving and the weekly minimum order value is $49.95.
Home Chef runs new customer promotions often. The current offer is $20 off your first 4 boxes for a total savings of $80! Customers will be responsible for shipping costs. Shipping totals depend on the meal plan you choose.
As you can see in the screenshot below, ordering 3 meals per week for a family of 4 would cost you around $107.88, plus $6.99 for shipping.
How to Customize and Choose Meals
Customers can customize orders to fit their eating preferences. Home Chef offers up to 38 choices weekly.
Decide what you’re craving and Home Chef will list some possibilities for you. Choose from categories, such as: Quick and Simple, Low-cal, Carb-conscious, Vegetarian, and Adventurous.
These suggestions have something for everyone including people who don’t have much time to cook or meal prep. For example, some meals—like this BBQ Chicken Flatbread—can be prepped, cooked, and on the table within 15 minutes.
When you’re browsing through meals on the site, all meal listings will tell you the prep and cook time, cook within date, meal difficulty level, and spice level. Nutrition guides will also be provided, and all menus list what ingredients will be included in the box.
What Else Do You Get with a Home Chef Subscription?
The meal plans Home Chef offers are pretty unique but still easy to make and will be great for anyone looking to avoid eating the same thing each night. What I love about Home Chef is the variety of meal plan options and all the time and attention to detail that goes into that.
At my house, we don’t have any dietary restrictions, but I know many other people and families do. Some meal delivery services don’t offer vegan, vegetarian, or keto meal options. While some meal delivery services offer firm plans with little room to customize, Home Chef offers a more expansive selection to suit everybody.
Another feature I like that’s included in your subscription is Home Chef’s Culinary Collection. You can select this option for your meal plan and order ingredients to prepare premium dinners hand-picked by experienced working chefs.
Consider ordering your meals on the app if you’re busy. If you decide you don’t want Home Chef for a week, you can even pause your subscription at any time.
Home Chef Meals
At least 18 new meal choices are added per week. Waste should be very limited because meals are perfectly portioned for what you need.
Home Chef does a good job at providing very detailed preparation instructions as well as cooking tips that will help you prepare a tastier meal. You can always take these tips with you to prepare other meals for your family in the future.
Some of my favorite Home Chef meals are:
- Greek Panko-Crusted Cod
- Sirloin Steak with Balsamic Sauce and Potatoes
- Brown Butter Shrimp
- Southern Sweet and Spicy Pork Chop
Most of the meals seem to only require you to use one or two pans, which is nice because I don’t like to dirty up all my dishes just to prepare a meal. I prefer one-pot meals and cleaning up as I go.
Reviews show that Home Chef has made a positive impact on many customers. Besides a few issues with shipping, these customers are extremely satisfied with the service:
“Recipes are so easy to follow that even new chefs can do it. Dishes are very minimal and clean up should be a breeze.” – Tammy Kulhanek, Facebook
“Overall the meals have been really great! We’ve really been enjoying the meals and there’s such a wide selection that anyone can find something they like. Their customer service is also exceptional! There was a forgotten item in one meal and they got back to us right away and credited us for the whole meal! They are also the only home boxed meal service I’ve found that provides a discount to healthcare providers and first responders. So important to have that small acknowledgement.” – Blair DiScala, Trustpilot
“I had a subscription for a few months. Loved the meals. Site was very easy to use and make modifications to what we wanted. They were very easy to make and tasty. Just needed to cancel for now which also was very easy. When I am ready to go back to this type of service I would definitely come back to Home chef.” – User from Trustpilot
Pros: Who is Home Chef Good For?
Home Chef would be a good idea for families looking to eat healthier but don’t have time to shop and pick out foods. If you have a larger family, Home Chef might work as well if you’re already spending hundreds per month on meals. You can order as many as 6 meals per week with enough ingredients to serve 6 people.
Yes, it will cost more when you add more meals or servings to your weekly subscription, but you will likely spend less overall doing Home Chef versus buying takeout for the family 1 or 2 nights per week. Plus, you can always adjust or skip your deliveries as needed.
Home Chef would also be ideal for anyone with dietary restrictions since this meal delivery service offers the most variety I’ve seen to date. Whether you want to eat meat, seafood, or vegetarian, there are options available to you.
I’d also recommend this meal delivery service to anyone who doesn’t want to be in the kitchen all day since most meals are quick and easy to prepare.
Cons: Who Isn’t Home Chef Good For?
Home Chef would not be a good idea for anyone who does not have the time to cook their own meals during the week or who does not want to try new ingredients. While meal options are fully customizable, you will still need to spend time in the kitchen cooking and may have to try working with some ingredients that are new to you. Luckily, Home Chef provides thorough and easy-to-follow instructions.
Home Chef would also not be the best option if you’re not willing to spend money on quality and wholesome ingredients. The meal options provided through Home Chef are not like the precooked foods you might find in your grocery store that are loaded with sodium and preservatives. Everything is fresh and provided from quality sources.
Add-Ons for Home Chef
Customers can include add-ons to their weekly delivery. To do this simply go to the weekly add-on sections of the subscription section of the dashboard. Choose from different foods and any additions you’d like to make to your meals.
Add-ons vary weekly, but can include fruit and smoothie options.
Home Chef Customer Service
You have a few options to get in touch with customer service. You can submit a question through their website or call customer support Monday-Saturday at 872-225-2433 or
855-949-3049 (Toll-Free).
Meal cancelations can be made up until 12 PM CST the Friday before the delivery day. If you’re interested in canceling an order, make sure it’s prior to when it’s been shipped!
Home Chef does not have a chat option through their website, but their direct messages are open on both Twitter and Facebook.
Home Chef vs Blue Apron
Blue Apron is the main competitor of Home Chef. Blue Apron meals are around the same price as Home Chef, but Blue Apron doesn’t allow you to order as many servings or meals per week (Home Chef has a maximum of 6 while Blue Apron has a maximum of 4).
You can read our Blue Apron review here.
One difference is Blue Apron does offer vegetarian plans but only for their 2 person plans, not family plans. Blue Apron has a very wide window to skip subscription orders. Deliveries can be skipped up to 5 weeks in advance.
Some of Blue Apron’s meals do take more time to cook and prepare with some taking up to 90 minutes!
Home Chef vs Hello Fresh
Hello Fresh puts more of an emphasis on farm-fresh foods than Home Chef. Hello Fresh recipes are also considered more “standard” and don’t have as fancy of a menu as some meal subscription services.
Hello Fresh costs about $8.99 per serving plus $8.99 shipping. The minimum you can order is for two people and three recipes per week.
Summary
If you’re looking to try out a meal delivery service that provides whole, healthy ingredients and a variety of tasty options, you really can’t go wrong with Home Chef.
Home Chef has dinner options for all types of individuals and families and their prices aren’t bad compared to takeout and organic foods you’d find at your local grocery store.
If you love providing a warm, home-cooked meal for your family or are looking to reach some health and nutrition goals this year, Home Chef can definitely help you get the job done. Meals are easy to prepare, which is great for people with limited cooking experience, as well.
Readers, are you thinking about giving Home Chef a try? What is your go-to meal delivery service?
– Chonce Maddox-Rhea @ RSG
