Home Chef Meal Kit Review

Plans & Pricing

For those looking to eat healthier and lose weight, a meal kit can help by giving you a plan to stick to, so when things inevitably come up during the week, you’re not tempted by takeout or other unhealthy choices.  

Now that we have the basics covered, let’s talk details. Here’s how the Home Chef plans work, and how much they cost:

Plans

A couple of different options create your “plan”, but you’re not locked in—these settings can be changed any time as your needs change:

• Servings per meal: Two, four or six
• Meals per week: Two, three, four, five or six

So it can be totally flexible depending on what you have going on each week. Family out of town? Order fewer servings per meal while they’re gone. Have a big week coming up at work? Order more meals to help keep you on track and off the fast-food delivery apps.

Good to know: Home Chef also allows customers to skip a week or cancel their plan at any time with no fees.

Pricing

With meal kits starting at just $7.99 per serving, Home Chef is one of the best-priced options out there. The pricing is based on how many servings per meal and meals per week you choose, and the more you get, the more you save in that regard.

Home Chef also offers discounts for military, first responders, health care workers and teachers, which you can opt into during checkout.

Shipping is $10.99 to $13.99 per box. Pro tip: The more you order, the more you save on shipping!

How It Works

Home Chef works the same as other meal kit delivery services in that you pick your meals each week and receive a box on your doorstep that contains fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and recipe cards to follow.

Ordering Information

Ordering is simple. First, you’ll choose your plan, Home Chef or Fresh and Easy (the company’s line of meals ready in less than 30 minutes). Next, you can select your dietary preferences—here’s where you’ll choose calorie-conscious or carb-conscious to see those options when planning your menu. There’s also a spot to select any foods that you want to avoid, either for allergy purposes or personal preferences.

The next step is to choose how many servings you want per meal, and how many meals you want to receive each week. Remember, these options can be changed as often as you like—even weekly if needed.

After you build your box, you’ll enter shipping and payment details, select your first delivery date and then move on to the fun part: Choosing your first week of meals. 

Each week, your meal kit will be delivered in an insulated box with cooling gel packs. Home Chef recommends unpacking your box and refrigerating items as soon as possible to maintain maximum freshness.

How the Meal Kits Work

Inside each meal kit is pretty much everything you need, ingredient-wise, to create healthy, home-cooked meals—the only things you’ll need on hand are salt, pepper and oil. Here’s what you can expect to receive: 

• Fresh ingredients for each meal, including spices, sauces and all the extras, organized into individual bags by meal
• Step-by-step recipe cards with color photos

The recipe cards are meant to be kept and reused, so as you get future Home Chef shipments, you’re also building a recipe collection that you can use to recreate your favorite meals any time a craving strikes.

The Food

Home Chef puts an emphasis on freshness, sourcing the freshest ingredients and packing them in a way to ensure they arrive fresh to your doorstep as well. Customer reviews rave about how fresh the meats and veggies are, on a consistent basis, which speaks highly to the company’s practices.

Although not all of their ingredients are organic, Home Chef sources organic whenever they can, and the Customize It feature allows customers to choose organic chicken breasts for many of their recipes.

What’s on the Menu?

Whether you want to be adventurous and try something new, or you prefer classic, tried-and-true flavors your whole family will love—there’s something for everyone on the Home Chef menu. Here’s a taste of some of their carb- and calorie-conscious recipes:

• Buttermilk Chicken Schnitzel with Cucumber-Dill Sauce and Zucchini—Carb-Conscious, Calorie-Conscious
• Turkey Enchilada Meatballs with Cheesy Tortilla Broccoli—Carb-Conscious, Calorie-Conscious
• Chili Ground Pork Lettuce Cups with Homemade Queso—Carb-Conscious, Calorie-Conscious
• Creamy Beef Bolognese Stuffed Peppers with Mozzarella and Parmesan—Carb-Conscious, Calorie-Conscious
• Crispy Shrimp Fajita Tacos with Lime Crema and Cilantro—Calorie-Conscious
• French Onion Pork Chop with Green Beans Almondine—Carb-Conscious, Calorie-Conscious

Nutrition

While many of Home Chef’s traditional recipes are comfort food forward, there’s a great selection of calorie- and carb-conscious recipes that rotate each week, so you always have a variety of different cuisines and ingredients to choose from. We saw an average of 15 recipes in these categories from week to week.

Here’s how Home Chef defines their calorie- and carb-conscious offerings:

• Calorie-Conscious: Less than 625 calories per serving
• Carb-Conscious: Less than 35 grams of carbs per serving

Bonus: Many carb-conscious recipes also fall into the calorie-conscious category, too.

Since going the meal kit delivery route for weight loss requires a little more work on your end than a traditional weight loss meal delivery program, you’ll want to check out the nutritional information for each recipe to make sure it fits your specific needs. Home Chef includes this on every recipe page on the website, including a full nutrition facts panel, ingredient list and allergen info.

Home Chef vs The Competition

If you’re considering a meal kit delivery service to help support your weight loss, you’ll want to make sure to compare the features of top brands. Check out how Home Chef stacks up to the competition with this handy chart:

The Bottom Line

If you want to eat healthy and lose weight but struggle with meal planning, meal prepping or generally not having enough time to get a healthy meal on the table each night, a meal kit is an excellent option for you. 

Home Chef can help you achieve all of this, with pre-portioned ingredients that ensure portion size, reduce food waste and most importantly—give you a plan to stick to even when your week starts to go off the rails (which is when dieters are most likely to fall off the wagon).

Experienced dieters may also love that it’s not a rigid meal plan—it offers flexibility, lots of variety and the ability to cook and enjoy meals with your family each night. We especially love that Home Chef doesn’t stop at dinners, they offer options for breakfast, salad kits that can be used for lunches, snacks and protein packs that are perfect for those who love to meal prep—it’s a great all-around option for anyone looking to eat healthy and save time!