Hello Fresh - Steakhouse Pork Chops

A lot of people have questions about those Home Delivery Service companies that ship you all the ingredients for a meal that you then get to cook at home. The wife-monster found a special on Hello Fresh and I liked the appeal of not having to go to the grocery store as much so we ordered some. The meals come complete, for the most part, with large friendly instructions. You DO need to have some basic cooking skills for these as very little is prepared for you. You just get the stuff and the instructions. Whenever I prepared one of these meals I would see myself doing reviews on YouTube with me cooking the meal for the first time and giving reactions about it. But, since I have the looks of a radio star and the voice best used in mime, writing about it is probably the best option.

The meal comes in nice paper bags that work well as trash bags while doing prep work.

The front of the instruction sheet has a lovely picture of the meal as completed by chefs who actually understand the concept of plating and food presentation. It has a list of the ingredients that are supposed to be in the bag and some basic prep and calorie information.

The other side has the instructions in simple steps with bright happy pictures to help you along. It also lists the things you will need to supply such as pans, salt, pepper, oil, and such. It's a nice comprehensive set up. One suggestion is to actually read through all the instructions before beginning to cook. Trust me, there have been a couple of times I messed up because I didn't read all the instructions first. One other kitchen tool I highly recommend is a pair of kitchen shears. Getting some of the packets open can be a bit of a pain without them.

Here is everything in the bag. As you can see, it's all pretty much what you might grab at the store except for the concentrated stock and seasoning mix. There is no namby-pamby pre-made stuff here so you need to have some basic cooking skills before starting.

And the prepwork is done. Potatoes chopped, onion diced, lemons zested and quartered. That's all the prep work needed for this meal.

The potatoes were seasoned with S&P and tossed with a bit of olive oil then roasted for about 10 minutes. Once that was done, the green beans were added and also treated to the S&P and oil then everything back in the oven for another 10 - 15 minutes.

While the veggies are roasting, it was time to prep the pork chops using the included "steakhouse" seasoning. Once seasoned, they went into a pan with some oil to sear for 4 - 8 minutes per side. Warning, this splatters a bit and oil gets on the stove. That's a -1 on the "Cleanup Meter". The crust does get a bit dark and if it gets too dark then turn down the heat. Once the chops are cooked, remove from the pan and wipe out the pan. Then make the sauce in the same skillet. Nice. This gets a +1 on the "Cleanup Meter".

I am not a professional chef or food stylist. I do tasty, not pretty.

Final result. Opinion: Rather easy to make, even for a novice who isn't afraid of a little dicing. There was enough food to make a 230 pound man full. The potatoes could have used a bit more time in the oven, but they were cooked enough. Ratings: Taste - 4 1/2 out of 5. - Very good. The pork chops were perfectly cooked with a savory almost crunchy crust. The lemon zest added to the beans perked them up nicely. The sauce was excellent. Cooking - 3 out of 5 - Just needs some knowledge of dicing, zesting, mincing. The cook should not be afraid of pan frying. No tricky instructions. No advanced techniques required.

Clean up - 3 out of 5 - The only washing needed was a skillet, a sheet pan, cutting board, and some utensils. No sticky glazes or anything. The prep area was an easy wipedown but there was oil splatter on the stove. This is one we would order again.