Home Chef Review: Affordable Meal Kits That Taste Great

A nutrition coach tries a week’s worth of Home Chef meals and reviews the preparation time, quality and taste of the meals.

Author:
Cory Kessler, Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach
Updated:
Jan 4, 2024

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I’ve been the primary cook in my house for quite some time. For a while, getting dinner ready was no problem. With two kids, though, cooking can turn chaotic quickly. I’ve lost count of the dinners I’ve ruined because my attention was pulled elsewhere and didn’t make it back to the kitchen in time.

But the biggest challenge happens when I’m about to make a certain meal only to realize I need a handful of ingredients (that I never seem to have) from the store. Yet, loading up the kids for a store run is quite the production—which is why I was so excited to try Home Chef.

Home Chef is a meal kit delivery service that sends you pre-packaged, pre-measured ingredients in a bag and a recipe card that gives you step-by-step instructions on making the meal. For this article, I ordered two weeks worth of meals to provide you all a comprehensive review. I’ll discuss everything you need to know, from the customer service experience to the cooking to how the meals taste, to help you decide if Home Chef is the meal delivery service for you.

Home Chef At a Glance

Starting price per serving: Prices start at $9.99 per serving
Type: Meal kits and easy prep (oven-ready) meals
Regional availability: Home Chef can deliver to “98% of the United States,” but there is a tool that allows you to search for your zip code
Recipe options per week: 10+ meal kits (depending on the type of menu) plus extras like sides and desserts
Diet options: No specific diets available besides vegetarian

Home Chef Pros

Recipes are simple and have larger portions than expected
Larger portions than expected
Customization available if you want to avoid certain proteins
All ingredients come in clearly labeled bags
Easy-to-follow cooking instruction cards

Home Chef Cons

Menu does not specifically accommodate diet restrictions
No nutrition facts to help you track macros
Sauces and garnishes are not always labeled
Meal bags require significant space in the refrigerator

How Does Home Chef Work?

Take a survey

When you sign up for an account on the Home Chef website, you’ll do a brief survey quiz that gathers some basic information from you such as what you’re looking for in a meal delivery service, whether you have experience with other services and most importantly your preferences.

Home Chef does not have specific plans to accommodate specialized diets, but you can designate whether you want your meals to be calorie-conscious, carb-conscious or vegetarian. You can also select foods that you may want to avoid like pork, beef, chicken, nuts, shellfish and others. This list is shorter than some other meal delivery services I’ve used, but it covers some of the most common allergens and foods people avoid.

Related Post: The Best Meal Delivery Services for Vegans

Choose your box size

After you note your preferences, you decide on a box size. A box contains all of your meals for the week, so it is important to make sure you get enough. You’ll have to select total meals plus the portions of each you want to receive. Each plan has different portion options, which I’ll discuss below.

If you’re signing up for Home Chef, you have to input your billing information before you see the menu, but you can also access the current week’s menu from the home page without making an account. The weekly menu will have a lot of options to choose from, and the number seems to vary depending on your plan and preferences.

For example, my plan menu for next week has 13 meal options, two lunches, 10 bundles and 26 extras.

Delivery and packaging

Home Chef delivers once per week, and my order arrived in one large box. Each meal’s ingredients came in a separate bag that was labeled with the meal title. All of the meats were in one bag together, but inside the bag they were individually packaged with clear labeling.

Cooking

The cooking experience was the reason I chose Home Chef in the first place. It was incredibly easy to go to the refrigerator, grab a bag and have all of my ingredients measured for me. The recipe cards were also very helpful, giving step-by-step instructions and pictures.

One thing I noticed after making my second meal was that it is helpful to read ahead on the recipe instructions card. When I was cooking the first meal I began sauteing vegetables in a skillet and did not realize I was supposed to go on to the next step to prepare the meat while the vegetables were cooking. It didn’t affect the meal, but it did add about 10 minutes to the cooking time.

Who Home Chef Is Best For

Busy people who need balanced nutrition without the hassle of planning and going to the grocery store
Families who need to cook for large numbers of people
Anyone who wants to learn to cook healthy and tasty meals at home

Diets

Unfortunately, Home Chef is not designed to accommodate specialized diets. There is a full vegetarian menu, but otherwise you’re limited to low calorie and low carb meals. There are also keto-friendly and (sometimes) vegan-friendly options on each weekly menu, but if you won’t find a full menu of these options like you would in a strictly vegan or keto meal delivery service.

Otherwise, if you’re looking to balance your diet as part of a weight loss program, Home Chef does offer fresh, quality ingredients. All of those ingredients are also pre-measured and the meals have designated portion sizes, which makes it very simple to separate portions and avoid overeating.

Variety

Home Chef’s menu is planned five weeks in advance. That means you can look ahead and pick your meals or request customizations. Keep in mind, though, that your customization options are limited to proteins. That means you can substitute pork to turkey for example, but you can’t switch out meals on the menu or substitute vegetables and sides.

Limited variety is probably the biggest drawback of Home Chef that I experienced. For example, on the family plan menu for next week, there are only six meal kits to choose from with another four oven-ready meals. That does not give you a lot of options if you’re trying to receive a meal every night. However, it’s pretty easy to skip a week if you don’t like the menu because Home Chef offers a flexible subscription with no penalties for skipping weeks.

Cooking with Home Chef

Ease

The big question with a delivery service like Home Chef is the cooking experience. Are meal kits really that much easier than alternatives like going to the grocery store yourself? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that it depends what you’re looking for.

I know that a lot of people compare Home Chef to services that send pre-cooked meals. I can understand why people compare the two, but I don’t think it’s a fair comparison because meal kits serve a different purpose than pre-cooked meals. Pre-cooked meals are usually from meal delivery services for weight loss specifically. It is better to think of Home Chef as a way to have your diet balanced for you rather than restrict your calories or track your macros.

In terms of actually cooking the meals, Home Chef’s meal kits are extremely simple to make. The recipe cards lay out clear instructions that you follow in sequence, and the time estimates are generally correct.

Taste

Like I said before, I tried a full week's worth of recipes for this review so that I could put Home Chef to the test with my usual routine rather than as a one-off experience, and I rated each meal on a scale of 1–10. I tried:

Peppercorn chicken breast
Asian-style turkey lettuce wraps
Steak strip and broccoli stir-fry
Portobello mushroom caprese burger
Balsamic-glazed chicken cutlets

Peppercorn chicken breast: 8/10

The peppercorn chicken breast was the first meal I made. It took me about an hour to make even though the card says 30–40 minutes because I missed a line on step three that says “while the chicken cooks, continue the recipe.” Absolutely my fault, but make sure you read all of the instructions to avoid wasting 10 extra minutes.

I gave this recipe an 8/10 because while my wife and I thought it was delicious, my kid wouldn’t finish. To her credit she took one bite of everything, but the buttermilk-dill seasoning was too much of a niche flavor for her.

Asian style turkey lettuce wraps: 7.5/10

Reading ahead on this card helped me and this recipe was done in 30 minutes, right in the middle of Home Chef’s 25–35 minute estimate. As far as taste, this may have been my second favorite meal, but it was a bit too spicy for everyone else in the house—despite being labeled mild. I would chalk that up to user error as well, but the recipe laid out exactly how much sriracha to use.

Steak strip and broccoli stir-fry (substitute diced chicken breast): 7/10

I’m the only one in my house that eats red meat, so I subbed diced chicken breast for the steak strips, and I think that was a mistake for this particular meal.

The recipe doesn’t ask you to season the steak, so the diced chicken breast substitutes were a little bland. However, this is the type of meal that my kid loves, which is more important than my taste buds most of the time. I added my own seasoning after the fact which made this a pretty versatile meal.

Portobello mushroom caprese burger: 10/10

I was shocked by how good this recipe was. I usually avoid mushrooms at all costs, but this was my favorite dish in the box. It was really easy to cook, even taking a little less time than the estimate, plus the flavors were fantastic. I had never cooked mushrooms before so I’m not 100 percent certain I did it right, but it worked. Everyone in the house loved this meal.

I kind of cheated and used the airfryer instead of the oven for the fries, but they were magnificent.

Balsamic-glazed chicken cutlets: 6/10

I am a little biased against the balsamic-glazed chicken cutlets because I don’t like cauliflower, which is a big part of this meal. However, I used some rice I found in the pantry instead of cauliflower.

The flavor was good but did not stand out. However, in fairness to Home Chef, the dish is designed for cauliflower. So, I would assume if you like cauliflower then the dish would taste better overall.

Packaging

Home Chef boxes come with a significant amount of packing. Inside of my box there were ice packs plus each meal kit was separated into its own plastic bag. Inside of each bag the ingredients were usually separated into their own containers as well. Additionally, proteins for each meal were individually wrapped and put together in another separate bag. However, almost every piece of packaging was recyclable, which I appreciated.

Ingredients

Personally, I thought all of Home Chef’s pre-portioned ingredients in my meals tasted high-quality and fresh. Home Chef doesn’t make many claims about their ingredients, and very few are certified organic. But I found the produce and meat quality comparable to what you can find grocery shopping at stores like Harris Teeter or Trader Joe’s.

Is Home Chef Good for Weight Loss?

If you’re looking for a specialized diet with strict portion control, macro-nutrient content and a hard calorie limit, then Home Chef may not be for you. There are some options on the weekly menu that are diet-friendly like carb and calorie conscious choices. There are also occasionally keto-friendly and vegan meals, but overall that is not the focus of the menu.

Home Chef’s meals are designed by professional chefs to be balanced. The ingredients are fresh and pre-measured, plus the portions are designated, but there is a bit more variety in terms of nutritional content then you’ll find with other healthy meal delivery services.

For example, one meal kit from Home Chef might be 400 calories per portion while another might be 360. It is also up to you to separate the portions evenly which could add or subtract from your overall calorie intake.

However, if you’re looking to add balanced meals with fresh ingredients to replace an unbalanced diet, then Home Chef is a great option. There is even a fully vegetarian menu option.

How Much Does Home Chef Cost?

Subscription

Home Chef is not a typical subscription service in the strict sense of the word—as in a fee you pay whether you use the service or not. Home Chef’s subscription is a weekly recurring order that will happen automatically unless you manually stop it by skipping a week or canceling your subscription.

Available plans

Standard Home Chef Plan and Fresh and Easy Plans: Starts at $7.99 per serving, but the price varies based on how big your order is and what meals are on the menu on a given week. There is a $50.95 minimum weekly order on this plan.

Family Plan: Starts at $6.99 per serving, but varies based on how many servings and overall order size. There is a minimum weekly order of $82.91 per week.

Servings

Standard: The standard plan is divided into two subcategories: the Home Chef Plan and the Fresh Easy Plan.

I used the standard Home Chef Plan for this review and received two portions of each meal. I decided it would probably be better to let my kid try some of mine rather than make a full meal. You can choose two, four, six or eight portions for each meal with the standard meal plan.

The Fresh Easy Plan is different because all meals have little to no prep. Some of these are pre-cooked and just need to be reheated while others are oven-ready meals. The serving sizes are the same as the Home Chef Plan.

Family: The family plan lets you choose four, eight or 12 portions per meal. Unfortunately you can’t customize the protein on the family plan meal kits like you can on the standard plan.

Home Chef Customer Service

Home Chef’s customer service is awesome. I ordered a box and got delivery updates via text, but did not receive my shipment. The driver contacted me and asked where my house was because they could not find my location, only for me to realize that I made a mistake on the autofill feature when inputting my address—the box was in an entirely different city.

Despite it being my fault, Home Chef sent another box to the correct address with no extra fees.

Delivery

Home Chef delivers meals Sunday through Friday every week, and you can choose your own delivery date to receive your shipment. You can also sign up to get text updates about your order.

Shipping

If you order two meals per week for two people, shipping costs $13.99. For all other plans, shipping costs $10.99 per box.

How to cancel Home Chef

You can cancel Home Chef through either the website or the mobile app. On the website, all you need to do is sign in, click Account in the upper right corner, click the Account Settings tab and then click the Pause Subscription button.

In the mobile app you click Account in the bottom right corner, My Account settings and then Pause Subscription.

However, one thing you should be aware of is that you have to cancel before 12:00 p.m. Central Time on Friday to cancel the following week’s order. You won’t be able to cancel a shipment the same week it is being delivered because the food is already prepared.

Home Chef vs. Blue Apron

Home Chef and Blue Apron are actually very comparable in a lot of ways. Both services have meals that start at $7.99 per serving, and neither service fully accommodates specialized diets like gluten-free, paleo, keto or vegan. However, the key difference is that Home Chef has a lower minimum order and a higher maximum order, meaning Home Chef is slightly cheaper and a better option for large families.

As far as recipes go, Home Chef’s recipes definitely seem to be simpler. I have not personally tried Blue Apron, but a quick look at their menu showed more complex recipes that take longer to prepare. If you’re interested in testing your culinary skills then Blue Apron may offer more variety.

Home Chef vs. HelloFresh

HelloFresh is probably the most well-known meal kit delivery service because they operate in 16 different countries. The companies have very similar sign-up and delivery experiences plus almost identical pricing.

Two things that separate HelloFresh and Home Chef is the new HelloFresh Market feature which allows you to add groceries to your order, and sustainability. HelloFresh packaging is entirely recyclable while Home Chef is only mostly recyclable. However, once again Home Chef just has simpler meals that are easy to cook and replicate on your own if you ever stop your orders.

Home Chef FAQs

Will Home Chef help me lose weight?

Home Chef is not specifically designed to be a weight loss delivery service. However, there are calorie-conscious meals on each weekly menu, plus every meal is made with fresh ingredients. The meals are also portion-controlled but it is up to you to make sure you’re not eating more than one portion.

Is Home Chef cheaper than eating out?

Home Chef meals start at $7.99 per serving on the standard plan and $6.99 per serving on the family plan. There is a minimum order for each, but if you’re comparing cost for each meal, then yes Home Chef is cheaper than eating out.

Is Home Chef cheaper than groceries?

There are a lot of variables to consider when comparing costs between Home Chef and groceries. Home Chef is generally cheaper than using grocery delivery services. But if you’re going to the grocery store yourself then you’ll typically be able to keep the cost lower than Home Chef.

Is Home Chef delivered fresh or frozen?

Home Chef meal kits are delivered fresh or ready to eat, but never frozen.

Takeaway: Is Home Chef Worth It?

Bottom line: Home Chef is a cost-effective meal kit delivery service that can help busy people balance their diet with nutritious, calorie-conscious meals that are easy to prepare and taste amazing. And if you’re like me with either a family or larger group of people to cook for, Home Chef’s serving size options are second to none.

All prices are accurate at the time of publishing.