Home Chef provides a wide range of Easy Prep meal kits, oven-ready meals, snacks, and sides. You can get access to a variety of dishes with meat, vegetarian recipes, seafood, and much more.
Though it does offer some international cuisines like Asian, Italian, and Mexican, most recipes are quite Americanized. This adds a few interesting flavors to the menu but still keeps it relatively family-friendly and it’s suitable if you prefer slightly less spicy food.
Here, I’ll suggest several of the best Home Chef recipes that might become your new favorites – regardless of whether you just want to heat up your food and eat or prepare a beautiful dinner yourself.
Bacon Rockefeller Burger – Best intermediate-level burger and fries recipe
Lemon Cream and Spinach Sausage Spaghetti – Best spinach and sausage meal kit
Chesapeake-Style Shrimp Pot Pie – Best vegetarian meal kit for intermediate cooks
Al Pastor-Style Pork Tacos – Quickest and easiest Mexican-style pork tacos
Baked French Onion Penne – Richest pasta dish for expert cooks
Most popular burger and fries recipe
Nutritional content: 930 calories
Ready in 50 minutes or less
This is one of my favorite dishes on the site since I’m a sucker for burgers. You can prepare this recipe in about 50 minutes or less, and you’re also looking at an intermediate skill requirement here. Don’t worry if you don’t like beef – this recipe gives you the option to replace it with pork, turkey, or Impossible Burger meat alternative.
What I like most about this recipe is the inclusion of the brioche buns. Having these instead of regular, run-of-the-mill hamburger buns elevates the dish quite a bit. The garlic pepper for your fries is also a nice added touch and is often overlooked by other competitors.
In terms of ingredients, you’re looking at ground beef, sour cream, light cream cheese, shredded parmesan, bacon bits, and russet potatoes. If this all seems a bit much in terms of calories, you’re always welcome to omit whatever ingredients you like, and you’ll still end up with a great result.
Fastest sausage spaghetti meal kit
Nutritional content: 790 calories
Ready in 35 minutes or less
If you’re into spaghetti, sausage, and spinach, this just might be your new meal of choice. It’s a great option for those who are in a bit of a hurry since it only takes about 35 minutes or less to prepare. The difficulty level here is intermediate. You can customize this recipe by swapping out the Italian pork sausage with turkey, Impossible Burger meat alternative, or steak strips.
Altogether, there are only a few simple ingredients, which make this dish stand out. It contains spaghetti, panko breadcrumbs, pork sausage, spinach, one whole lemon, and shredded parmesan cheese, and is cooked in a creamy sauce base.
Considering its creamy sauce base, the overall calorie count isn’t as high as you might expect. It only contains about 790 calories in total.
Great single-pot, low-calorie meal option
Nutritional content: 580 calories
Ready in 55 minutes or less
This dish might take a little more time to prepare, but you can do it all in one single pot. The Chesapeake-Style Shrimp Pot Pie only takes about 55 minutes to prepare and requires an intermediate skill level. The shrimp in this dish can also easily be substituted with chicken breast or Impossible Beef meat alternative.
You can expect this dish to cater to those who like puff pastry, cream cheese, potatoes, celery, and carrots as well. The garlic and chives round off the flavors nicely and bring everything together.
It’s not a spicy dish, so you can also expect it to be more family-friendly, especially if you have children or those who prefer less spicy dishes in general.
Best traditional Mexican-style tacos
Nutritional content: 700 calories
Ready in 35 minutes or less
These Al-Pastor tacos might just make you feel like you’re living it up in Mérida or Yucatán state in general – all from the comfort of your kitchen. They only take about 35 minutes to make and require an entry-level cooking skill set. If pork isn’t your thing, replace it with turkey, steak strips, or Impossible Beef meat alternative.
If you’re someone who likes spicier food, this might just be a great option for you. I like to see the inclusion of some more interesting ingredients like Pablano peppers and chipotle seasoning.
You can also expect to be using shallots, crispy jalapeño peppers, ground pork, lime, and garlic – all very much staples of Mexican cuisine. The pineapple chunks add that final touch that completes the meal.
Best expert-level pasta dish
Nutritional content: 630 calories
Ready in 50 minutes or less
If you’re looking to have guests over, or simply impress your family with some cooking skills, the baked french onion penne is an expert-level dish that takes about 50 minutes to prepare, and will pack tons of flavor. If you prefer to add meat, you can customize the recipe with chicken breast, steak strips, or even Impossible Burger.
This Italian-influenced dish takes a bit of time to prepare but seems to be one of the most popular penne dishes on the site. It includes fresh thyme springs, cloves, and yellow onion, and has a creamy sauce base.
I personally love french onion soup, so seeing that spun up in a new way is something that really appeals to me. You can take an otherwise classic dish, and mix it up by creating a beautiful baked pasta dish instead.
Fastest Oven Ready vegetarian salmon recipe
Nutritional content: 840 calories
Ready in 30 minutes or less
If you’re looking for some meals that you don’t have to cook, you could check out the range of Oven Ready meals on offer. These meals will only cost you about 30 minutes of your time, like the Peach Balsamic Salmon.
This recipe is vegetarian and contains about 840 calories. Since it’s a heat-and-eat meal, the difficulty level is easy. All you will need to do is place it in your oven until it’s hot, serve, and eat it. You won’t be able to replace the protein here, so only order this recipe if you’re into salmon.
I also liked the garlic butter orzo it’s served with, which adds a nice Italian touch to an otherwise pretty basic salmon recipe. This is one of the fastest vegetarian Oven Ready meals available.
Prep/Cook time | Calories | Suitable For | Difficulty Level | |
40-50 minutes | 930 calories | Soy-free, nut-free | Intermediate | |
25-35 minutes | 790 calories | Soy-free, nut-free | Intermediate | |
45-55 minutes | 580 calories | Calorie-conscious, low-carb, soy-free, nut-free, vegetarian | Intermediate | |
25-35 minutes | 700 calories | Soy-free, nut-free, dairy-free, low-calorie, carb-conscious | Easy | |
Baked French Onion Penne – Richest Pasta Dish for Expert Cooks | 40-50 minutes | 630 calories | Calorie-conscious, soy-free, nut-free | Expert |
20-30 minutes | 840 calories | Vegetarian, carb-conscious, soy-free | Easy |
Home Chef may not offer as many weekly meal options as some of the competition, but you’ll still find lots of meals here your entire family will love. A good combination of meal kits and prepared meals also goes a long way.
Whether you want to create a stunning, expert-level meal to wow your family, or simply heat and eat a meal in under 30 minutes in the oven, there’s something for you. You won’t find quite as many exciting new cuisines to choose from as other competitors, but the meals you find will be pretty family-friendly and not overly spicy.
Overall, though I think Home Chef could definitely do more to add additional weekly options, it still offers up a healthy selection of meals for a variety of needs. You’ll find soy-free, nut-free, low-carb, calorie-conscious meal kits, snacks, and sides that rotate on a weekly basis.
It’s up to you to decide which of Home Chef’s meals you’d like to try, and will ultimately love. You can check out a variety of meal options each week. In this article, I’ve outlined six recipes to give you an idea of what’s on offer, and whether or not you’ll be satisfied with Home Chef.
Home Chef offers up a diverse selection of meal kits that you cook yourself, prepared meals that you can heat in the oven, sides, and snacks. Preparation times can vary, but most meals fall somewhere between 10-15 minutes, to around one hour or less.
Each meal box includes detailed recipes with step-by-step instructions. All you need to have on hand are some essentials like salt, pepper, oil, and any cooking equipment like pots, pans, baking sheets, and peelers.