Tag: Blue Apron

  • “Final” Blue Apron Review Series – Smoky Chicken & Brown Butter-Orange Sauce

    “Final” Blue Apron Review Series – Smoky Chicken & Brown Butter-Orange Sauce

    This month we are reviewing the meal order service Blue Apron! Each week we’re going to review a new recipe, and in the last installment we’ll look at the service as a whole. Each week we’ll score on three key points: Quality of Ingredients, Ease of Instructions, and Taste. Each will have a five-point scale: 1-Poor, 2-Could be Better, 3-Okay, 4-Good, and 5-Excellent.

    This week’s, and the final, recipe we tried from Blue Apron was the Smoky Chicken & Brown Butter-Orange Sauce with Sautéed Cabbage & Mashed Potatoes.

    Quality of Ingredients: All of the ingredients for this recipe were very good. The produce was fresh and in good condition. The honey and butter were of great quality individually packaged in the correct amounts. The portions also seemed very appropriate.

    Ease of Instructions: The instructions for this recipe were the most complicated yet. With multiple steps and times occurring simultaneously, things did get confusing. I ended up keeping the chicken in a little too long, but thankfully it wasn’t overdone.

    Taste: The flavor of this recipe was excellent. I really enjoyed the spice blend with the sauce on the chicken. There was a great depth of flavor with the spice, fat and acid of the sauce with the brightness and sweet flavor of the orange. The potatoes and cabbage were simple but also paired well with the sauce and chicken.

    Overall: Blue Apron overall provided great recipes with good quality ingredients. The recipes were sometimes confusing, but reading them through once or twice before beginning helped with that. The service was prompt with email alerts and an app to help you order and track your meals. I found this convenient. All orders ship at the beginning of the month, so you can’t simply order a meal at any point, which wasn’t a problem for me. However, due to inclement weather the first delivery was delayed a day. This just meant I needed to plan around it. The flavor of all the recipes were excellent. The attention to detail with the combination of ingredients is really amazing. Especially when there are so few ingredients in each one. I love the cards they give for each recipe as well. I’ll definitely hold on to these and make them again. Overall I’d give Blue Apron a 4.5/5. It’s a great service!

  • Blue Apron Review Series – Greek-Style Feta Burgers

    Blue Apron Review Series – Greek-Style Feta Burgers

    This month we are reviewing the meal order service Blue Apron! Each week we’re going to review a new recipe, and in the last installment we’ll look at the service as a whole. Each week we’ll score on three key points: Quality of Ingredients, Ease of Instructions, and Taste. Each will have a five-point scale: 1-Poor, 2-Could be Better, 3-Okay, 4-Good, and 5-Excellent.

    This week is the Greek-Style Feta Burgers with Tzatziki & Lemon-Oregano Potatoes.

    Quality of Ingredients: The ingredients for this kit had a couple problems. To start the potatoes went bad pretty quickly. I wasn’t able to make this meal until about week after it was delivered. I’ve had potatoes in my refrigerator for a month and still be fresh, so it suprised me that these turned. The second problem is that the liquid in the feta cheese somehow leaked out. I replaced the potatoes, but the cheese and everything else was fine. Overall the meat was good quality and the buns were nice and soft, so I rated this as good.

    Ease of Instructions: There were a number of steps to this recipe, despite being relatively simple. All of the instructions were clear and concise.

    Taste: I really liked the flavor of these burgers. The cheese had a nice saltiness, and the tang of the tzatziki complimented it well. My only complaint is that the amount of lemon juice called for in the recipe left the potatoes with too much acidity. Luckily there was plenty of tzatziki left over which balanced it out well.

  • Blue Apron Review Series – Hoisin Chicken Steam Buns

    Blue Apron Review Series – Hoisin Chicken Steam Buns

    This month we are reviewing the meal order service Blue Apron! Each week we’re going to review a new recipe, and in the last installment we’ll look at the service as a whole. Each week we’ll score on three key points: Quality of Ingredients, Ease of Instructions, and Taste. Each will have a five-point scale: 1-Poor, 2-Could be Better, 3-Okay, 4-Good, and 5-Excellent.

    This week are reviewing some Hoisin Chicken Steam Buns with Marinated Carrots and Miso Cabbage Slaw.

    Quality of Ingredients: The ingredients for this recipe were all very good. The produce was fresh and clean, with no blemishes. The chicken had no excess fat and was already cut, which was fantastic. I loved the “bao” buns. They were very pillowy and steamed up well without sticking.

    Ease of Instructions: There is a lot going on in this recipe. But the instructions were broken down very clear. The only problem I had was that the chicken is the second out of five steps, and although the instructions include covering to keep warm, it still ended up cooling down a bit.

    Taste: The flavor here was great. A little heat, sweetness and sourness. The carrots added a nice fresh and acidic component. The buns were great and had the perfect chew to them. The slaw was also very good, but a little one-note, even with the miso dressing. Overall very good mouth-feel and flavor.

  • Blue Apron Review Series – Tandoori Style Chicken

    Blue Apron Review Series – Tandoori Style Chicken

    This month we are reviewing the meal order service Blue Apron! Each week we’re going to review a new recipe, and in the last installment we’ll look at the service as a whole. Each week we’ll score on three key points: Quality of Ingredients, Ease of Instructions, and Taste. Each will have a five-point scale: 1-Poor, 2-Could be Better, 3-Okay, 4-Good, and 5-Excellent.

    The first recipe I tried was the Tandoori-Style Roasted Chicken. Each meal comes with all of the ingredients pre-packaged. It also comes with a recipe card and nutritional information. This was nice to have, especially if you like the recipe and want to make it again.

    Recipe Card and Ingredients

    First up is Quality of Ingredients. The ingredients for this meal were fairly simple, with the more complicated flavors already combined in a tomato chutney. I only had a problem with the freshness of two pieces of produce, the Cabbage and the Poblano Pepper. They weren’t unusable, but the cabbage started to spot and half of the pepper was very soft (almost mushy). For the cabbage I just had to peel a few extra layers off. With the poblano I discarded the top, and as I had a green bell pepper on hand, I subbed in a little of that.

    The Ease of Instructions were good. Although thorough, they were complex for only having seven ingredients. Each needed to be prepared separately and cooking times varied between the Farro, Vegetables and Chicken. Overall, if you read the whole card in advance (maybe twice) there shouldn’t be any issues.

    This recipe takes home the gold on flavor. The yogurt-tomato chutney covered chicken was very flavorful, with a good combination of acid, sourness and spice. The Farro/Vegetable mixture was simple, yet had a nice complex flavor from roasting the cabbage and pepper.

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