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Home Chef Oven-Ready Menu Review — Is It Worth It?

Vessy

September 27, 2022

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We’ve taken a close look at the Home Chef Oven-Ready menu to bring you all the information you may need about the subscription. 

Let’s get into the pricing, pros, cons, how to order, and what you can expect as a new subscriber.

Bottom Line

Home Chef Oven-Ready is a weekly subscription service that offers delicious food for reheating in the oven. It saves you time and money while ensuring your diet remains healthy.

All About Home Chef Oven-Ready

We’re on the lookout for the top subscription boxes for 2022, which includes up-and-coming subscriptions as well as new plans from old favorites. 

So, let’s check this menu from the food subscription legend that is Home Chef. 

Home Chef’s Humble Beginnings

Pat Vihtelic founded Home Chef in 2013 by Pat Vihtelic. And the oven-ready meals from Home Chef are all about delivering delicious food straight to your door, leaving you with very little need of prep time and cleaning up. 

Since its inception, Home Chef has blossomed. The company now includes over 700 employees and several chefs that truly know what they’re doing. 

What Does Oven-Ready Mean?

Home Chef offers pre-portioned ingredients in an oven-ready tray. This equals very little prep and no clean-up, so the meals are quick and easy. 

Home Chef Is Best For

Based on our Home Chef no prep meals review, this plan is brilliant if you want fresh and delicious food that just needs warming up in the oven. It’s all pre-portioned but still feels like you’ve contributed to cooking. 

Home Chef May Not Be a Good Fit For

Home Chef may not be suitable for those who want to cook meals for themselves or have food allergies. A Home Chef meal kit would be a better option. 

Home Chef Oven Ready Offers

Let’s look at the Home Chef Oven-Ready meals menu to get a better idea of the service:

• Mongolian-Style Beef With Noodles and Snow Peas
• Chili-Lime Enchilada Chicken With peppers, corn, and black beans
• Shrimp and Broccoli Pasta With Truffle Parmesan Cream Sauce
• Honey Carolina BBQ Beef Meatloaf With French Onion and Sweet Potatoes

And it’s all absolutely delicious. Plus, more than one Home Chef ingredients review shows that the food components are the best of the best. Also, the menu curation is based on seasonality and availability. 

But if you’re allergy-prone, this service might not be the best option. The kitchen uses all eight big food allergies as set out by the FDA. While Home Chef makes all efforts to keep these ingredients separate, there’s no guarantee you won’t encounter them. 

Does Oven-Ready Mean Less Taste?

No, the meals are all curated with taste in mind. So, all ingredients are seasonal, fresh, and sometimes even organic. Plus, with the added spices, you’ll definitely enjoy your oven-ready meals. But if you want a plant-based option, look into customer opinions on Fresh n Lean.

Looking through Home Chef prepared meals reviews, you’ll also receive full nutritional information, including: 

• Calories
• Fats
• Sodium
• Carbs
• Protein 

Just click on the menu item online. 

It’s the Little Things — What You Should Know About Your Subscription

If the oven-ready menu sounds like a good fit, here’s all the information you’ll need to set up a new account. 

How to Sign Up

Setting up your account is super easy. Simply follow these instructions:

• Go to the Home Chef website.
• Select “Get Started.”
• Choose your plan and dietary restrictions.
• Enter your email and zip code.
• Select how many people and how many meals you want to serve.
• Enter your address.
• Pick your meals.
• Checkout.

More than one Home Chef ready-made meals review finds the whole process is simple. The hardest part is selecting which meals you want to try. And even if you don’t want to sign up, you can find some meals at Kroger-owned grocery stores across the US.

Managing Your Account

Once your account is ready, you can manage everything from it, like skipping a week or canceling your subscription. 

Just note that you should make all changes by 12 PM CST on the Friday prior to delivery. 

The Cost-Effective Choice — Home Chef Pricing

Pricing depends on the types of meals and the Home Chef Oven-Ready menu options you select. The minimum weekly order is $39.96. 

Here is a pricing breakdown:

Some meals with Home Chef cost as little as $9.99 per serving. But you’ll get the total amount on checkout. 

Home Chef Customer Service

The Home Chef website has an in-depth FAQ section. But if you need specific help, you can:

• Call: 872-225-2433 (9 AM–6 PM CT Monday–Friday and Saturday from 10 AM–2 PM CT)
• Message: Online

Home Chef Oven-Ready reviews share that the customer service can be a bit hit and miss. Some love it, while others say there’s room for improvement. 

Receiving Your Box — Shipping & Packaging

Home Chef Oven-Ready food delivery is available to 98% of the US. So, nobody gets left behind with all the delicious food on offer.

The shipping costs are included, and the packaging is super earth-friendly. Let’s see what this means:

• Box and Dividers: 100% curbside recyclable
• Insulated Liners: Made with PET liners and denim. You simply throw the denim in the trash and recycle the film. 
• Ice Packs: You can reuse them, but you can also cut them open, throw the contents in the trash, and recycle the film. 
• Containers: All curbside recyclable

Once you get your order, be sure to refrigerate your meals to preserve their freshness. 

Home Chef Oven Ready Meals — What Do Customers Think?

Looking at reviews for Home Chef oven kits, many users are very happy with the service. They compliment its convenience and the types of meals. 

Here’s one example:

“The food and recipes are excellent. One thing I really like is that there are different difficulty levels to choose from. You can pick regular recipes which may take 30–45 minutes to make, 15 minute prep recipes or heat in the oven meals. We try to choose a variety of them to suit weeknight meals when we are limited on time and weekend meals when we have more time to cook.” — Candie

Still, there are some Home Chef complaints mentioning a miscommunication about what oven-ready means. It involves some prep but not as much as a meal kit. 

Despite this, Home Chef ratings are fantastic. The service receives 3.8 stars out of nearly 3,000 reviews on Trustpilot and 3.6 stars on Consumer Affairs. 

Ready, Set, Compare — How Home Chef Stacks Up

There are numerous services that can compete for the best food subscription websites, and it would take weeks and even months to sort through them all. To make things a little easier, we’ve compared some of the top competitors, so you don’t have to:

Home Chef Oven-Ready Menu vs Hello Fresh Oven-Ready Meals

These two meal services are pretty similar. You receive ingredients, put them into the provided aluminum tray, and cook the meal in the oven. 

Based on our Hello Fresh oven-ready meals review, the pricing ranges. The cheapest option for two people with two meals per week will set you back $47.96, while six recipes for four people cost $191.76. 

In contrast, Home Chef offers two recipes per week for two people at $39.96 and six recipes for four people at $239.76. 

Home Chef Oven-Ready Menu vs Freshly Oven-Ready Meals

You can reheat all Freshly meals in the oven or microwave, so there’s no set menu. In contrast, Home Chef offers specific oven-ready menu options. 

Looking at pricing, Freshly offers four meals a week for $47.16 while the same with Home Chef is $39.96.

Home Chef Oven-Ready Menu vs Sun Basket Oven Kit

Like Home Chef, Sun Basket offers meal kits and oven-ready meals. One difference that we appreciate with Sun Basket is that the oven meals are separate from the meal kits, making it easy to check out the menu. 

Both services offer easy-to-heat meals, starting at $9.99.

Is Home Chef Worth It? — Final Thoughts

It’s worth it. Home Chef offers a wide range of plans to suit the needs of just about anyone. The oven-ready meals are particularly convenient, with very little prep and clean-up.

Give the plan a go if you want fresh food that requires little to no effort but still tastes delicious. 

FAQ

Can I freeze Home Chef meals?

Once you get your meals, Home Chef recommends refrigeration. Freezing is alright for meats and seafood, but fresh produce needs refrigeration before cooking.

Can you get Home Chef Oven-Ready meals in stores?

Absolutely! Some ready-made meals and meal kits are available in Kroger-owned grocery stores. To get an idea of which meals might be best for you, look into the difference between Home Chef and Fresh and Easy. 

Can I customize Home Chef meals?

Looking at the Home Chef Oven-Ready menu, you can customize some elements of your meals to exclude items you don’t want.