I love meal kit delivery services (here’s a comparison I did) and one I’m really loving lately is Home Chef, so I wanted to share an updated review of why I love Home Chef. I’m also sharing a Home Chef discount code for $40 off (use code 40Sweetphi at checkout – more below.)
Life has been increasingly busy lately (follow along with the Catching Up With The Kelnhofers series). I have boy/girl twins and a toddler and value time with my family and husband, a full time “day job” and this blog business. Some days (most days lately) I get home and have about 30 minutes in which to get dinner on the table.
If I haven’t thought ahead or prepped a recipe ahead (like this freezer enchilada casserole or have some waffles in the freezer for a brinner – breakfast for dinner – kind of night) we’d be eating a whole heck of a lot (more) of drive through or pick-up, if it weren’t for Home Chef!
Home Chef is awesome for when you just want all the ingredients delivered to you with a recipe. It takes the guess work out of dinner if you haven’t thought ahead.
They’ve made some awesome changes lately which has really made me love their service even more. So why do I like Home Chef so much specifically?
- They now have Oven Ready meals – Oven Ready meals are no-prep, no-mess (no dishes!). They send the customers everything they need to make a meal including the cooking tray. I feel like I’m still ‘cooking’ but I’m really just assembling stuff. I’ve tried several of their Oven Ready meals and they’re so good! They have at least one Oven Ready with each menu and are always adding more. I have made several of their recipes on repeat after trying them from Home Chef. For example, my recipe for 5 ingredient baked chicken parmesan pasta was based off a recipe I tried from Home Chef. Another recipe I recently tried that I’ve been making over and over is Caesar chicken- it’s chicken breasts, covered in Caesar dressing, panko breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese and on the other side of the pan is broccoli and roasted red peppers mixed with a little olive oil and all purpose seasoning – baked at 400 for 25 minutes. Omg so good!
- Customize It: Home Chef customers can swap or upgrade proteins in many of their meals now (i.e. want steak tacos instead of chicken, that’s easy!). More information can be found on this page.
- Home Chef Express: In addition to Oven Ready meals, Home Chef offers Express meals which are very minimal prep and are ready in under 1/2 an hour.
- Their food tastes really good and Ben loves helping me cook – he says “help” and then he’ll scoot his little kitchen stool up to the counter and I’ll let him stir a sauce or add a topping or something. It’s super cute.
Other posts you might enjoy:
- I tried 6 home meal delivery services; here is my comparison
- The Best Healthy Meal Delivery Service
- Meal Delivery Services are the Best Gift for New Moms!
Hope you love Home Chef as much as I do.
This is not a sponsored post, as always all thoughts and opinions are mine alone. I will receive a small commission if you purchase through my link at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting the brands and products which make the SweetPhi blog possible.
Marianne in Mo. says
I tried Home Chef this past spring with a similar offer I got from IG. I loved the meals for the most part ( a couple of picks we didn’t end up liking, and I think one that I overcooked the protein while prepping other ingredients) but I eventually decided it wasn’t great savings when you added the cost of shipping. It’s great convenience though if you don’t count shipping. The meals are really good, not skimpy, and easy to follow (read through it first, and get organized!) I may go back to it from time to time, but I’ve been on “pause” all summer so far. However, we live 25 miles from decent shopping, so I may resort to them in the winter to save myself the travelling! Small town life = sacrifices!!!
Sweetphi says
Thank you for the comment, I couldn’t agree more. I always like the meals of things I normally wouldn’t make and trying new things!
Karen D says
I have tried some other meal delivery kit options. Some are better than others, so it would be great to have a chance to try Home Chef, per your review.
FLAP says
Based on this blog I visited the Home Chef site. Wow! Not a great idea. Until you sign up and PAY you can’t read reviews, see menus or even find out if they have anything you might like to try or experiment with. They won’t even show photos of what’s on offer! How can you choose the meals you might like in this manner? I backed out of the website and won’t go back. I’m really disappointed, especially now in July 2020, with so many issues regarding Covid-19. I’m sticking with Publix and Walmart delivery or contact-free pick up.
Sweetphi says
Hi there – I just checked (because I know that I’ve experienced some websites like that that don’t share menu options and it drives me crazy and I would have noted that in my post) but if you go to the Home Chef site right at the top on the left side it shows their logo, then it says ‘Our Menu’ ‘How it works’ and ‘Gift Cards’ If you click ‘Our Menu’ it shows you the entire menu for the week and you can scroll to following weeks It shows options and prices. All without entering any credit card information or any information whatsoever. IF you click ‘log in’ or ‘get started’ then it only asks for info. Hope that helps.
FLAP says
Yes, thanks very much for your help. I will revisit their site.
Susan P. says
I won 3 months of Hello Fresh and it was easy and good. A couple mix-ups in delivery that took an effort to get corrected but the product was good and the recipes were things that were easy and tasty. One box was delayed and the proteins were room temperature. One box the protein (beef) leaked in the box. Their customer service may have gotten better but it was a lot of work to get these things corrected. Since it was a prize, the marketing people had to get involved as well as a manager.
Sweetphi says
Wowza, that sounds like quite the experience! I haven’t had any issues with Home Chef 🙂
Linda Bick says
This would be fun to try because I often get the “what am I going to make tonight blahs”!!!
Sweetphi says
Even though I blog about food – I get those all the time 😉
patricia caradonna says
The meal kit delivery service would be perfect for my family since I work full time. I enjoy trying new recipes and this makes life easier.
Shoshana Rose says
I would like to give this a try. While I usually do not have trouble figuring out what to make based on what I buy at the farmers market, it would be nice to give my brain a break every once in a while 🙂
Pam Sierzchulski says
My daughter and I used to make a weeks worth of meals at Dinner By Design. It made weeknight meals stress free and delicious. I haven’t found a meal service that lets you customize like that! Excited to see if this service would Be comparable.
Sweetphi says
Thanks for commenting Pam 🙂 Dinner by design sounds neat too – you’ll have to tell me about that!
Sharon says
I’ve tried one meal delivery service and just really enjoyed the ease and convenience. Home Chef sounds like one I would love to try!
Tia W says
I would love to try this, I have a 9 month at home and my husband works late hours so anything to help make dinners easier and convenient is up my allay!
Sweetphi says
Thanks for commenting!!
Jeffrey says
I’d love to try Home Chef. We’ve tried delivery services in the past with excellent results. The meals seem easy to prepare and look more upscale. With kids in school and activities afterward it becomes increasingly difficult to have sit down meals.
We have a fairly small fridge/freezer, so its sometimes hard to have prepped frozen meals. Brinner is a favorite at our house, waffles freeze so well!
Sara Williams says
I’ve tried a couple different meal kits services, and I have mixed reviews about both. I did end up with a couple of keeper” recipes that I’ve made again! I’d be thrilled to try a new one!
April says
This recipe looks amazing! I love meal kits because they open my eyes to new flavors!
Sweetphi says
I love all the new flavors too, it definitely opens my eyes – to new flavors and ingredients!
Lisa Burkhart says
Haven’t tried a delivery service yet, but have been wanting to give it a try. Working full time and going to the gym to maintain my 100 pound weight loss makes it important to make a quick healthy dinner. I’m good at food prep, but some days it just gets away from me.
Sweetphi says
Hi Lisa, oh my goodness, congrats on your 100 lbs weight loss and for commenting! Some times it really is nice to not have to think about dinner and to just put together what is sent from a meal delivery. They have these awesome quick prep salads lately that are truly delicious!
Trina Cormia says
I’ve have never tried any of these food service company’s, but would like too! After a day of working out in the yard, cleaning out cliosets or coming home after a very busy day at work. I think it would be really nice at the end of a busy/productive day, to have a healthy & balanced meal already made up to enjoy.
Denise E. says
I could use this! I told my husband that when he retired he was going to help me meal plan, including picking a recipe and preparing it. It’s been a year now…. I am still waiting……
Maybe a meal service will give him a jumpstart?
Sweetphi says
HAHAHAHAHa….totally laughed out loud at this comment, I hear you. If nothing else…it would be easier for you to prepare 🙂
Darcy says
I love having meal deliveries during those busy weeks when you’re home at night; but need to make something on autopilot. 🙂
Ker says
I haven’t tried this meal delivery service, but I haven’t been thrilled with the other few I tried. It sounds like this is one to try. Being a busy professional, cooking proper meals can be a daunting task! It would be nice to make it a bit easier to do.
Sweetphi says
I’d love to hear which other ones you’ve tried! I also really really need to message you about getting together, would love to catch up 🙂
Rachel Zimmerman says
I want to try a new delivery service – my last one ended up being disappointing.
Sweetphi says
I think you’d like Home Chef (their food tastes really good, and I love their quick and easy meals). So sorry to hear about your last experience…can I ask which service it was with? I’ve tried about a billion and one services and I too have had some not so great experiences…like the one I tried where I used just about every dish and pot in my entire kitchen!
Rachel Zimmerman says
It was Dinnerly. Ingrediants were often missing and one time, the box was just never delivered. Customer service was always very nice, but delivery services are supposed to be convenient and ultimately, this just wasn’t.
I also tried Blue Apron, but again experienced lost boxes. Maybe I just have bad luck? Lol.
Sweetphi says
Haha, no it’s not you or bad luck. I’ve heard many not so great things about both those companies. I tried Blue Apron and while it was fine, their recipes literally used every pot/pan and dish in my kitchen, it was insane!