How I Gained Confidence in the Kitchen Using Home Chef

Originally published on allrecipes.com

My grandfather used to say if you can read, you can cook, but if you're like me and lack confidence in the kitchen, it can be intimidating to try a new recipe. What if I burn my kitchen down? What if my cooking is inedible? Sometimes you just need a guiding hand, and Home Chef provides that and more.

This weekly meal delivery service offers tasty and nutritious dishes that are well-portioned and easy to prepare for lunch and dinner. Each meal comes in a bag with all the ingredients and detailed recipe instructions that show you the cook time, level of difficulty, nutrition info, and freshness date. From delivery to preparation, Home Chef saved me time in the grocery aisle and hardship in the kitchen. Home Chef sent me meal kit samples to try out for one week, and this is everything I learned.

How I Tested This Service

Over the course of a week, I prepared four Home Chef meal kits and two sides. I honestly enjoyed everything I ate—which, coming from a picky eater, is saying something. The delivery arrived on time, and all of the ingredients were fresh and in good condition. I was missing one meal kit, but I contacted Home Chef and it was replaced almost immediately with something that ended up being even more mouthwatering.

I tried to get a mix of my favorites (read: pasta) as well as branching out to try new recipes like tofu gyros and huli huli chicken. Between the detailed instruction cards and the organized ingredient packages, it was fairly simple to prepare everything, and the flavors turned out to be delightful.

All of the dishes come with two servings, which is great for sharing the meal with someone or having leftovers for future meals. After finishing each dish, I was left completely satisfied with no residual hunger, and that's not the case for all meal kits. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience ordering from Home Chef, but let's get to the specifics of why.

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Pros:

Tasty flavors and fresh ingredients
Good meal variety in weekly menus
Easy preparation
Responsive customer service
Flexible subscription
Wide availability
Ample portions
Competitive pricing
Some sustainability initiatives

Cons:

Limited options for dietary customization
Some delivery issues

Signing Up for Home Chef

To begin Home Chef's user-friendly sign-up process, you can either take a quiz to assess what meal plan is best for you or go straight to the registration page. If you go the quiz route, it will ask how much you enjoy cooking, your level of daily meal prep, types of meals that excite you, and what your priorities are when cooking, such as saving time, sticking to wellness goals, or trying new recipes. Once you're ready to register, select either the "Home Chef" plan for standard meal kits or the "Home Chef Fast & Easy" plan for no-prep meals.

Home Chef offers limited dietary customizations for its meals. When choosing your plan, you can select "calorie-conscious" or "carb-conscious" and then select ingredients you'd like to avoid, such as pork, mushrooms, tree nuts, and shellfish. But Home Chef doesn't make it easy to choose meals for restricted diets, like vegetarian, vegan, keto, paleo, or gluten-free.

Once you've chosen a plan, you can begin to build your box. First, you'll decide how many servings you need — two, four, or six. Then you can choose the number of meal kits you would like to receive, from two to six per week. Fill out your delivery information, and schedule your first delivery.

Home Chef delivers to 98 percent of the United States, but you can check if delivery is possible to your area by filling out your zip code when signing up. Note: The payment page actually comes before the meal selection step, so if you want to view the menu before signing up, there is an icon on the homepage where you can do so. The last step of registering is submitting your payment information and selecting which meals you'd like to order.

Home Chef also has an app where you can store your favorite recipes, order meals, manage your account, and view instructions for each meal you select (in case you lose any of the recipe cards that come in the box). Customers can easily pause their orders, change meal selections, or cancel their subscription through the website or app.

Home Chef Menu: Varied and High Quality

The Home Chef menu is updated every Friday at noon with new selections for the following week. Each week, there are roughly 12 to 13 regular meal kits to choose from, as well as two 15-Minute Meal Kits, five heat-and-eat Easy Prep Meal Kits, and about 15 consistent Extras, which are sides, proteins, and breakfast dishes that you can add to any of your orders. Even though the sign-up process has you select either Home Chef Meal Kits or Home Chef Fast & Easy, you'll have access to both types of meals when you're making your selections.

The customization filters sit at the top of the menu and include calorie-conscious, < 30 minutes, carb-conscious, and vegetarian (which is limited, but we'll get to that). The calorie-conscious and carb-conscious selections point you toward meals that are mostly protein and vegetables. If you choose < 30 minutes, you'll see a range of options like 15-minute meal kits, fast and fresh meals, no-prep meals, and extras like salads, dessert, and bread options. While there is a vegetarian filter, there are only two vegetarian meal kits per week, which doesn't offer much in the way of choice. That's why as a vegetarian myself, I ended up ordering dishes that included meat that I knew I would like (or could easily remove), but not all vegetarians would be willing to do that.

They do offer other meal kits you can customize, and for some of them, you can swap out the protein with Impossible meat. But others just have more meat options to choose from. Once you click on a meal, you have access to the full recipe, instructions, and nutrition information to see if it will work for your needs.

All of these meals come with two servings minimum, so if you are just ordering for yourself, you end up with enough for leftovers. Home Chef is a great choice for couples and families because you can order up to six servings, which is more than most meal delivery services offer.

What Meals I Chose for My Home Chef Box

Classic Meal Kit

Huli huli chicken rice bowl with charred pineapple
Crispy tofu and tzatziki gyros with feta and tomatoes
Cheese tortellini peperonata with garlic bread and parmesan*

*Home Chef sent this meal as a replacement for the cheddar and apple brewpub burger, which was missing from my box.

Fast & Fresh (Easy Prep Meal Kit)

Pepperoni pizza pasta with bell peppers and spinach

Extras

Three cheese asiago demi loaf
Chocolate lava cake

Home Chef Delivery and Packaging: Organized

Home Chef gives you flexibility with deliveries. When ordering, you select your first delivery date from a drop down menu, but you can change your weekly delivery day — Monday through Friday — at any time going forward. Shipments come once a week, usually in the morning based on reviews. My box was delivered around 10:30 a.m., and I left it downstairs for about an hour because I was working when it arrived. There were plenty of ice packs to keep everything fresh, and all items were cold to the touch upon opening the box. That being said, it's recommended to refrigerate the meals as soon as you can.

The packaging consists of a recyclable cardboard box, liner, and dividers, and ice packs which, according to Home Chef, are non-toxic and can be reused or recycled by emptying the contents (mostly water) into the trash and recycling the outer film. The meal kits arrive in aerated and labeled plastic bags to keep everything organized. There are also large instruction cards that you can use when you're ready to get cooking.

I noticed one of the meal kits I ordered was missing, so I notified Home Chef and got it replaced. Other than that, the ingredients were fresh, not bruised or wilted, and all of the containers were sealed properly. Each ingredient is labeled (apart from produce, which is referenced in images on the recipe card). The bags are designed to stand vertically, so they can sit side by side along your fridge shelf, which made the inner-organizer in me swoon.

My only note would be that most apartment buildings and city recycling facilities do not take plastic film, which means to actually recycle the ingredient packaging and ice packs, you would have to go to a special facility. So, only some elements of the packaging are easily recyclable.

Cooking Home Chef Meals: Simple

Using the ingredients and cooking methods supplied by Home Chef, I created some delicious meals without difficulty. As mentioned, I don't cook elaborate meals, so there were lots of opportunities for something to go wrong, and yet, all of the dishes turned out surprisingly well.

I started with the huli huli chicken rice bowl with charred pineapple. As someone who normally eats vegetarian, I have never cooked chicken, but I like it from time to time and thought I'd give it a chance. By using the instruction guide, I prepared not only edible and fully cooked chicken, but also a really scrumptious meal. The rest of the meals I ordered were also easy to prepare and made for a week of great dining.

Each recipe card provides a list of ingredients that are in your kit, as well as which items you'll need to supply, such as salt, pepper, olive oil, and types of cookware. The cards also tell you the cook time, the recipe's level of difficulty, and the spiciness level of the dish. The step-by-step instructions, accompanied by photos for those more visually inclined, give you everything you need to cook each dish. One of the best parts about these cards is that they instruct you in a way that has all of the food ready simultaneously. So, for example, putting in the garlic bread when the pasta sauce is about half-way done, so they are finished (and hot!) at the same time.

Different recipes have different levels of difficulty, which you can view online when choosing your meals from the weekly menu. You do have to prepare some of the food — for produce, I chopped onions and bell peppers, and for the garlic bread, I pressed the garlic and spread it on the bread with olive oil and cheese prior to placing it in the oven. For the standard meal kits, most cooking times are around 30 to 45 minutes, with some outliers closer to an hour. The Fast & Fresh meals average about 15 to 20 minutes.

Home Chef Flavor and Quality: Excellent

I don't have the most adventurous taste palate, but I was thoroughly impressed with both the flavors and quality of ingredients in my Home Chef meals. The refreshing pineapple in the huli huli chicken rice bowl balanced beautifully with the teriyaki sauce, and the red pepper flakes added just the right amount of heat to the rice, chicken, and slaw.

The asiago loaf side paired well with the pepperoni pizza pasta in a savory fusion of tastes and textures. It comes with pepperoni, obviously given the name, but I just left those out because they're not my favorite. This was a Fast & Fresh meal, and it took 15 minutes to cook, which, after a long day, was ideal. I actually paired the rest of the bread loaf with some soup I had the next day for lunch, and I was grateful for Home Chef's portion sizes, which allow for ample leftovers.

The crispy tofu and tzatziki gyros were a new flavor adventure for me, as I normally don't eat tofu, but I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the balance of seasoning with the fresh tomatoes and crumbly feta. The portions were balanced and made for more than one meal, which definitely simplified my meal planning for the week.

Don't get me started on the cheese tortellini peperonata and garlic bread — divine! I'm amazed with how it turned out, considering my friend and I were watching a certain reality TV finale while preparing the food. But even the drama did not distract us from how good this meal was. Finally, I paired the chocolate lava cake with just a touch of ice cream as the perfect midnight treat. My sweet tooth rejoiced.

I am not easy to please with food, by any means, so when I say this was good, it was GOOD. I learned recipes for dishes I would not normally eat and ended up loving them. I found a new respect for different spices and seasonings. And of course, the vegetarian finally learned how to cook chicken. What a week.

Home Chef Pricing: Standard

Home Chef pricing is pretty standard when it comes to meal kit delivery. Pricing starts at $50 per shipment, for two meal kits with two servings each, and goes up to $333, for six meal kits with six servings each (including shipping costs). Here's a per-week breakdown of the two-serving plans, including shipping:

Two meal kits, two servings each: $50
Three meal kits, two servings each: $63
Four meal kits, two servings each: $81
Five meal kits, two servings each: $99
Six meal kits, two servings each: $117

Prices increase depending on the number of servings you choose (two, four, or six). New Home Chef customers get $15 off their first order, and another $15 off their second order, but it has to be used within 10 weeks of signing up. Also, if you work in health care or the military or you are a first responder, student, or teacher, you get 50 percent off your first box and 10 percent off all future orders up to $60.

Home Chef Sustainability and Sourcing: Progressing

Regarding sourcing and sustainability, Home Chef is making some strides in this category. As mentioned above, Home Chef's packaging is partially eco-friendly — about half of it can be easily recycled or reused. The company, owned by Kroger, is also committed to reducing food waste through Kroger's "Zero Hunger, Zero Waste" social impact plan, which works to end hunger in communities and eliminate waste across the company by 2025. Home Chef notes online that while some of its ingredients are organic, it doesn't guarantee organic products for every meal. When it comes to food sourcing, Home Chef partners with local suppliers when possible and farmers that are practicing sustainable farming, maintaining industry standards in terms of animal welfare, and producing high-quality ingredients.

Home Chef Customer Service & Reviews

To reach customer service, you can submit a request online or call 1 (872) 255-2433. There is also an FAQ page that answers the most common questions among Home Chef customers. Reviews suggest that customer service is good about issuing refunds for any order mixups and accommodates customers with information ahead of time, should any ingredients need to be switched out due supply shortages.

Out of 2,888 reviews on Trustpilot, Home Chef received a rating of four out of five stars. Many customers love the ease of preparation and meal variety. One reviewer wrote, "Best decision I have made!! ... I work in healthcare, and after working 12-hour shifts, I want something that tastes great and [is] easy to prepare. My child loves them as well. Such a broad choice on the menu options."

Several reviewers loved the food but were disappointed with the delivery dates offered and that there were delivery delays throughout the year. Home Chef promptly responded to this feedback, encouraging customers to reach out to the support team for further assistance. One response in particular gave specific insight into the pandemic-related manufacturing delays that were causing problems with the delivery schedule.

Despite minor shipping issues, the majority of customers are happy with the simplicity and great flavors that Home Chef brings to the table. Another customer writes, "It's now been a couple of months since we have been doing Home Chef, and I love it more and more every day. I totally feel like I'm on MasterChef cooking from a mystery box challenge! I have been able to try different foods that I normally wouldn't since I am an extreme picky eater!! There is definitely something for everyone in the family on each menu! It has also helped with having to go grocery shopping, which I hate having to do! I love absolutely everything that this service has to offer!"

With competitive pricing and creative recipes, it's clear Home Chef has taken the burden out of cooking for many people across the country.

Home Chef: My Take

I was pleased with my Home Chef experience. The food was tasty, filling, and not too difficult to make. I liked the contrast of flavors and textures that it incorporated into each recipe and was excited to try foods outside my comfort zone.

I liked that Home Chef included grains and carbohydrates in its selections because many meal delivery services do not (especially plant-based services that tend to cut out grains as well as meat). While there were vegetables included, I think people with certain wellness goals might prefer a larger quantity of vegetables offered in these meals.

Home Chef seems to be making progress in terms of sustainability initiatives, and I appreciate that it considers eco-impact when sourcing agricultural partners.

Home Chef is best for foodies who like to try new recipes and don't have dietary restrictions. With new weekly menus and inspiration from different cultural cuisines, there will always be exciting new meals arriving at your door.

The Fast & Easy plan is better for someone with a hectic schedule because those dishes only take 15 minutes to prepare and cook, whereas someone who wants to savor their time in the kitchen and learn some new skills may benefit from the standard Home Chef meal kits. You don't have to be an adventurous eater by any means to enjoy this service, and you certainly don't need to be a chef. But, if you're more limited in what kinds of food you can eat, you'll probably have to modify the meals a little (whether that means ordering an Impossible meat substitute or just leaving an ingredient out of the dish).

I definitely gained some confidence in the kitchen this week, and I think Home Chef is great for people who want to branch out and learn to cook new types of food but aren't sure where to start. It can act as a helping hand on your journey to becoming a more savvy chef in your own kitchen.

I gave Home Chef a rating of 9.5/10 after comparing factors like ease of preparation, shipping and delivery, variety of ingredients, flavors, and more. After considering all of these components, I assigned Home Chef a weighted score out of 10.