Chicken Bánh Mì – Taste Test – Blue Apron Ready-to-Cook-Meals

Chicken Bánh Mì – Taste Test- Blue Apron Ready-to-Cook-Meals

Let me introduce you to a really incredible company, Blue Apron. You won’t believe how wonderful this service is for those who have busy lives, but still love to cook delicious, nutritious meals.  It’s also perfect for anyone who wants to try new and exciting foods, but who doesn’t have a huge variety of herbs, spices and seasonings in the pantry.

While I was in Austin to attend BlogHer Food, I was contacted by Cara, who was representing Blue Apron. She wanted to meet with me to tell me about the company, but somehow in the frantic, s0-much-to-do-so-little-time of the event, we never got to meet. When I returned home, she followed-up  with me and asked if I would be willing to test some of their product. I was happy to oblige since I had visited their website and was intrigued.

Blue Apron is a (relatively)  new food delivery service based out of New York. They provide kits, directly to your door, filled with all of the ingredients you would need to prepare delicious meals made in your own kitchen from the freshest of ingredients.

Their subscription-based service provides deliveries, once a week, at the cost of $10 per person, per meal. So, for the box I received, which included three meals, it would have been $60 dollars. They have subscription options based on meat, fish and vegetarian recipes and currently ship in the Northeast and much of the South (Here is a map detailing their shipping area).

This is what they have to say about their recipes:

• Complete meals with 500-700 calories per serving
• 35 minutes or less to prepare
• Premium, fresh ingredients and an emphasis on sustainable suppliers
• Pre-portioned ingredients to save you time and reduce waste
• Easy to follow, beautifully printed recipe cards
• Variety each week

When my box arrived, I was astonished at the amount of food that was included, as well as beautiful 8 1/2 x 11″ two-sided recipe cards in full color. The cards contain a meal description, ingredients list and step-by-step instructions (with photos for each step). Just take a look at the box of ingredients that arrived to me (Insta-gram photo…sorry for the blur):

Blue Apron Meals

Honestly, I was like a kid at Christmas! It was a treasure trove of the most delightful ingredients! Every single thing you need to prepare the meals is included (right down to spices and flour and oils). Here are the ingredients for the Chicken Bánh Mì:

Blue Apron Chicken Bánh Mì Ingredients

And the fresh produce is just beautiful too!

Blue Apron Chicken Bánh Mì Fresh Produce

Here is the recipe and instruction card they provided:

Blue Apron Chicken Bánh Mì Recipe and Instruction Card

Blue Apron Chicken Bánh Mì Recipe and Instruction Card

The instructions are so very clear that even if you are not a kitchen veteran, you can make these meals very easily. Blue Apron makes each dish fool-proof. The cooking techniques are all very basic, such as sautéing or boiling, and  the ones I tried only needed one or two pans to complete. Each recipe took, as advertised, around 30 minutes to prepare.

The portions are incredibly generous. For instance, the carrot they provided for quick-pickling for the sandwich was the most enormous carrot I have ever seen! I was able to have plenty of pickled carrot for the sandwiches as well as an entire pint of pickled carrot sticks to put in the refrigerator to munch on later!

I will say, because the carrot was so large, I had to add a bit of my own rice vinegar and some extra water to be able to pickle the entire thing. But I had so many other ingredients that were so generous that I definitely had leftovers of many of them.

This is the Sesame Cabbage Salad that accompanied the Chicken Bánh Mi Sandwich:

Blue Apron Sesame Cabbage Salad

And here is the full meal, which was just delicious!

Blue Apron Chicken Bánh Mi and Sesame Cabbage Salad

I’m pretty darned particular about the foods we eat, and I can say without any hesitation, Blue Apron meals are spectacular. If you don’t have time in a hectic schedule to go grocery shopping, or if you just want to be able to try fabulous new dishes without stocking an enormous pantry, I urge you to give Blue Apron a try! It would be well worth the money.

Not only does Blue Apron deliver these meals, they will also share the recipes with you, even if you don’t subscribe to their meal delivery service. You can subscribe to their weekly newsletter here to receive their recipes.

I was duly impressed.

P~

Disclaimer: While Blue Apron provided the product to me, free of charge, the opinions about their service are my own.