Home Chef is a meal kit subscription service that allows customers to pick out specific meals each week that best fit their tastes and schedules. Whether you’re cooking for yourself and your spouse or having a full house of kids, Home Chef offers recipes that everyone can enjoy. Each Home Chef box contains pre-portioned ingredients along with recipe cards and your own recipe binder. There’s a weekly rotating menu that has plenty of meal options to choose from, such as calorie-conscious or vegetarian.
Home Chef also offers prepared meals under their Home Chef Fresh 'n' Easy brand which you can order alongside meal kits that you have to cook yourself. This flexibility gives you more options to adapt to your schedule and needs.
Home Chef was voted onto our Reader's Choice list of Best Meal Kit Subscription Boxes so be sure to check it out!
Home Chef Reviews
Is Home Chef Right For You?
Updated September 24, 2024 | Verified Since 2024
Starting at $43.96
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Home Chef Overview
About the Brand
What It’s Like to Subscribe to Home Chef
Read reviews further down the page, too, for more personal experiences.
How Home Chef Works
There are 3 main steps to using Home Chef. First, you will need to provide some initial information: how many meals do you want to order, and what are your cooking and diet preferences to see the most relevant recommendations. Then, you can customize your meals by swapping out ingredients or by adding portions. While Home Chef recommends what it thinks you might like, you can still see and order from the full menu. Finally, you’ll receive your ready-to-cook ingredients along with step-by-step instructions on how to make your meals.
Home Chef Recipes
- Honey-Ginger Chicken Katsu
- Pork Chop and Red Wine Poached Figs
- Pumpkin Cranberry Cake
- Korean-Style Tofu Lettuce Cups
- Seared Scallops with French Onion Risotto
- Garlicky BLT Burger
Pricing Options
Pricing is based on how many people you are cooking for as well as how many recipes you want to receive.
| Number of People (2,4, or 6) | Recipes Per Week (2-6) | Price Per Week (+Shipping for Orders Under $40) | Monthly Total |
| 2 | 2 | $49.95 | $199.80 |
| 2 | 3 | $53.94 | $215.76 |
| 2 | 4 | $71.92 | $287.68 |
| 2 | 5 | $89.90 | $359.60 |
| 2 | 6 | $107.88 | $431.52 |
| 4 | 2 | $71.92 | $287.68 |
| 4 | 3 | $107.88 | $431.52 |
| 4 | 4 | $143.84 | $575.36 |
| 4 | 5 | $179.80 | $719.20 |
| 4 | 6 | $215.76 | $863.04 |
| 6 | 2 | $107.88 | $431.52 |
| 6 | 3 | $161.82 | $647.28 |
| 6 | 4 | $215.76 | $863.04 |
| 6 | 5 | $269.70 | $1078.80 |
| 6 | 6 | $323.64 | $1294.56 |
Home Chef Pros and Cons
Pros
- Boxes include a Home Chef cookbook that contains all of your recipe cards.
- Makes sure to include ideas and instructions for substitutions
- Offers both oven-ready prepared meals and meals that require more cooking
Cons
- Extremely limited vegetarian and vegan meals.
- Products are only organic on occasion,
- Limited options for dietary preferences, like keto or vegan
What Diets Does Home Chef Accommodate?
| Diet | Is Home Chef Good For This Diet? |
| Keto | Yes, there are some keto options |
| Gluten-Free | Sort of, there are some gluten-free options but it’s hard to tell. |
| Vegetarian | Yes, there are some vegetarian options. |
| Vegan | No, not from what we can tell. |
| High Protein | Yes, there are several options. |
| Low Carb | Yes, there are several options. |
| Organic | Not exactly. It depends on when you order, but it varies week by week. |
What Else You Should Know About Home Chef
Home Chef is one of the few meal kit subscription services that actually allows its customers to choose the length of time they’re willing to put into the preparation and cooking of each meal. Many other similar subscriptions do not provide this option which makes Home Chef great for both people on the go as well as individuals that have the extra time to put in their own flare. It also offers one of the most affordable options we’ve seen for this type of meal subscription box.
Is Home Chef Worth It?
If you’re not overly concerned with strict ingredient sourcing or affected by certain dietary restrictions or allergies, Home Chef should be a fine choice. It’s certainly was less expensive than practically all other meal kit subscriptions and still has quite the variety of options for recipes. Home Chef is also among the few subscription services that actually provide recipe cards within your own cookbook to create an even more personalized experience that you can build upon.
How Home Chef Compares to Other Top Meal Subscriptions
Home Chef_ VS HelloFresh: HelloFresh is a more affordable option and starts at $7.49 per meal vs. $8.99 per meal. However, it seems to offer fewer customization options and does not include the ability to select meals based on the estimated time that’s required to cook them. Thus, if you are ok with trading personalization for cost, then Hello Fresh may be the better option for you.
Home Chef VS Blue Apron: Blue Apron also offers a similar subscription box where its customers are required to cook their meals from scratch. However, it also offers other products such as wine and kitchen accessories. Blue Apron is somewhat cheaper on average and its meals start at around $7.49. However, it only offers up to 4 recipes per week for either 2 or 4 individuals, making Home Chef the best option for larger families or individuals that want to try out more recipes each week.
Home Chef_ VS Freshly: Freshly offers prepared food delivery subscriptions that start at around the same cost at $9.00/serving. Deciding whether Home Chef or Freshly is best for you depends on how much time you’re willing to spend each week on cooking and whether or not you enjoy creative cooking. Home Chef is best for customers who want to cook from scratch and add their own style to meals, whereas Freshly is best for people who are on the go and have limited time available for cooking.
Home Chef Reviews
Review
Home Chef November 2021 Review + Coupon
Looking for tasty meals that are healthy, quick, and easy? Make sure to check out this month’s Home Chef review for some of the tastiest meals we’ve cooked up this year.
Review
Home Chef October 2021 Review + Coupon
Looking for tasty meals that are healthy, quick, and easy? Make sure to check out this month’s Home Chef review for some of the tastiest meals we’ve cooked up this year. Our reviewer Lindsey opted for lighter meals this delivery, but they certainly weren’t short on taste.
Review
Home Chef August 2021 Review + Coupon
Looking for tasty meals that are healthy, quick, and easy? Make sure to check out this month’s Home Chef review for some of the tastiest meals we’ve cooked up this year. Our reviewer Lindsey opted for lighter meals this delivery, but they certainly weren’t short on taste.
Home Chef News
Home Chef FAQ
What is Home Chef & how does it work?
Home Chef (starting at $9.95 per serving) is a meal kit delivery service that sends you the fresh ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes you need to make home-cooked meals for you and your family. Choose to receive breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks as often as once per week. Set meal plan preferences and leave it to Home Chef to do the meal planning for you, or choose your recipes yourself from their ever-changing weekly menus. (You can even hand-pick the meat and protein you’d like for select recipes using their Customize It feature.)
Each Home Chef meal kit box contains the meats, produce, spices, and other ingredients you’ll need to create your week’s recipes. Note that you’ll be expected to supply staple ingredients, such as olive oil, salt, pepper, and water, as well as common cooking tools like simple pots, pans, mixing bowls, a good knife, and utensils like forks and spoons. Additionally, each Home Chef meal kit contains pre-portioned ingredients, meaning you’ll only receive as much of an ingredient as you need for the recipe. (No leftover ingredients going to waste in your fridge.)
How much does Home Chef cost?
The price of Home Chef is dependent on how many recipes you want to try each week and how many people you want to order meals for. If you’re only ordering meals for 2 people, you can expect most boxes to be under $100 per week. However, households ordering for 4-6 people can expect to pay upwards of $150 to $200 per week.
What skill level do you need to cook Home Chef meals?
Very little cooking experience required - each box comes with highly detailed instructions that will clearly guide you every step of the way. There are more difficult options available but you can find plenty of options that don't require you to be a pro chef.
What kind of food is on the Home Chef menu? Do they have vegetarian options?
Home Chef offers a wide variety of familiar and creative flavors in their ever-changing weekly menus. They do always offer vegetarian meals, but while you may find vegan, paleo, keto, or gluten-free meals on the menu, they don’t appear consistently. Some of the dishes we’ve gotten recently include: Crispy Prosciutto and Mushroom Farfalle with Garlic Bread, French Onion Chicken with Arugula Salad and White Balsamic Vinaigrette, BBQ Sweet Potato Buddha Bowl with Farro and Ranch Dressing, and Ciabatta Tuna Melt. Note that you can preview all Home Chef recipes and meal options before you order them, so you can double-check that the ingredients, calorie counts, and time commitment are to your liking.
Is Home Chef good for families with kids?
Yes, there are plenty of meal options that most kids will love, such as Margherita Pizza, Chocolate Lava Cake, and Philly Cheesesteak Tacos.
Where can I find this week’s Home Chef menu?
See what’s on Home Chef’s menu this week on their Our Menu page.
Is the packaging of Home Chef meals environmentally friendly?
All of Home Chef’s materials are recyclable or reusable.
When does Home Chef ship meals?
Home Chef sends weekly deliveries Monday through Friday and you can even select the day of the week that’s most convenient for you in most cases.
How to skip a week of Home Chef?
Log in to your account and go to the area “Your Upcoming Orders”. Then, select the week you want to skip and hit “Skip Week”.
How to cancel Home Chef?
Home Chef can be cancelled by logging in online and going to Account Settings. From there, you will need to scroll down to the bottom option that says Pause Subscription and provide your answer as to why you decided to pause your order. You must make sure to follow through all the way to the cancellation confirmation screen as well as receive your cancellation confirmation email. Also, you will need to cancel your subscription before Friday 12PM Central.
User Reviews
Subscriber Ratings
4 overall rating
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Subscriber Reviews
Annie T.
3 reviews
"Great!"
Mar 8, 2022
My favorite meal delivery service by far. I have tried blue apron and had a horrible experience. Will keep this subscription for quite awhile.
Bridgette
2 reviews
Feb 17, 2021
We have been ordering from them for a couple of months now and so far everything has been delicious and really easy to make!!! My favorite part about the whole thing is that it takes the stress out of having to plan dinner and I'm learning how to cook the right way. Even my husband loves cooking these meals. The portions are very generous! They are restaurant size portions. I would say that you get about 1.5 meals out of one serving.
The meals are very well packaged, have always delivered cold, no missing ingredients and always on time. The only reason for knocking it down a star is because the meals are starting to get pretty similar. A lot of them have used red meat, cream cheese and sour cream. Looking ahead for the next few weeks I do see a little bit more variety.
Maggie Goebel
1st Time Poster!
Jun 26, 2017
Our family subscribes to Home Chef as well as 4 other food subscription services. Home Chef is the best deal for your $$$ in my opinion. Plus.... the meals are the most kid friendly I am discovering.
Gina Hardin
1st Time Poster!
May 30, 2016
I have tried Blue Apron and Home Chef. After my first meal with BA, I was hooked. I loved the inventiveness of the recipes and feel it makes me a better cook. Home Chef food is "fine" Just fine. I received a box on Friday of a steak dish and two chicken dishes. One of the chicken dishes was basically chicken and an arugula salad. A lot of the reviews of HC like it because it is more akin to a comfort food selection and think that BA is too weird. I can see that. I ate one of the BA meals for breakfast because in Israel, its country of origin, it is a breakfast dish and it made more sense. With HC, my first meal was a steak meal with grains of paradise. Basically Steak Au Poirve. With mashed sweet potatoes and zucchini. Nothing I couldn't make myself. So one steak dish, a chicken and salad dish and Butter Chicken. The butter chicken is a good Indian curry dish but still not very exciting. I didn't learn anything new. Upside to HC- they give you a binder upfront for your recipe and all the food is bundled together. Both better than the presentation for BA. BA is definitely for someone who wants to learn some new cooking techniques. If that's not your thing, then HC would be great.
Melissa
6 reviews
Jan 30, 2021
I was subscribed to Home Chef from December 2018-March 2020. The reason I unsubscribed at that time was the meals started to seem repetitive, the quality wasn't there, and delivery was VERY unreliable. I understand that they do (or did at the time) contract out delivery to various companies. The company they contracted with for my delivery was TERRIBLE. They were delayed all the time (even prior to the pandemic), even a few times delivering after 10pm forcing me to stay up so my groceries weren't sitting out all night, or not delivering until the day after my expected delivery date. Other times ingredients would be crushed or spoiled, and while I was always compensated by customer service, it just became a hassle.
liz
1st Time Poster!
Feb 3, 2021
For my family, portion sizes were too small. Produce was often not good. Recent box had missing ingredients (the meat). Decided to pause our service.
beautybabyqueen
5 reviews
May 25, 2019
Got my 2nd box this month, The first box was missing ingredients and the ice pack exploded all over. They told me to just wash the food and it was fine to eat. UM NO! Threw out the box. The next box arrived yesterday at 9AM. It was warm and the ice all melted! Had to throw out that box too. Now I am out a hefty amount of money, and have used zero boxes.
astrobabyg
10 reviews
Nov 1, 2018
Got Home Chef on a groupon deal, I have used Blue apron for a long time so I though a new company might be fund to try out.
Sadly I was hella wrong. They were awful! First box arrived with the meat warm and the gel pack exploded on everything. I emailed them and they literally told me to wash everything off it would be fine. I said no, and called them back. Finally got a manager, sent pictures, and even a video, plus links to how the stuff is toxic when adsorbed into the fresh veggies. They finally agreed to send me out a new box, in two weeks.
It was the small fmaily size and not the large, plus it was missing two major ingredients.
I won't use them ever again1
Isabella
9 reviews
May 11, 2020
Ingredients are not of quality. It really would taste better and be more cost effective to go on YouTube and try to teach yourself how to cook.
Melissa Doum
1st Time Poster!
Jan 27, 2020
I have been doing Home Chef for over a year and I love it! The only issue I've ever had was it was late once but that due to the FedEx and the snow...The meals are wonderful and easy. I would definitely recommend.
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