It makes 4 burgers, 3 or 4 salmon fillets, a basket full of breakfast potatoes, plenty of vegetables, a full basket of chicken wings, etc. These units are basically small convection ovens, using super instant pot duo nova heated circulating air, and there is actually no frying or deep frying at all. Both the basket and the rack are nonstick and have relatively few crevices, making each easy to wash by hand.
I gave it a go with a popular online recipe, 2 pounds of thinly sliced top round beef and a tasty marinade. Set at 155 for 3 hours, I filled two trays with the marinated meat. Once the 3 hours were up, I set the Vortex Plus to bake at 275 and cooked the jerky for 10 minutes to ensure food safety. This combination air fryer dreams big and gets a lot of things right, but it’s not without its flaws, and my testing experience left me hoping Instant will make improvements and rerelease it.
When cooked well the bacon should be crisp and the fat should be rendered, leaving a lot of fat at the base of the air fryer basket. After air frying the chicken for 15 minutes, we found the insides to be suitably tender and the exterior noticeably crunchier than the results given by some air fryers we’ve tried. A great all-rounder, the Plus gives you the option to air fry, roast, grill, bake, reheat and dehydrate. We love its very specific variable temperature dial that ranges from 49°C to 205°C ( 120°F to 401°F) to suit your food. Meanwhile, its illuminated ClearCook window allows you to monitor your food without disrupting the cooking cycle.
We were excited about this feature, since we’ve noticed air frying smells—especially when it comes to greasy foods like fries—tend to overtake the kitchen and linger for a while. It features a traditional basket with a handle, an attachable cooking tray, and a sleek touch-screen interface. From there, you can select functions beyond air frying—like roast, bake, dehydrate, reheat, and broil.
The Instant Vortex Plus 6-in 1 Air Fryer with ClearCook and OdorErase is the first of its kind to almost entirely eliminate cooking odors, but this is far more than a gimmick. The air fryer is quick, quiet, and has a transparent cooking door that makes it easy to monitor meals. Our assessment of cleaning the air fryer includes both baskets, the interior of the machine and exterior surfaces.
Speaking of cleanup, all the attachments included (air fryer basket, trays, rotisserie spit parts) are dishwasher-safe. Points to Instant for making my after-dinner routine shorter in that regard. Note that the Instant Vortex Slim doesn’t come with OdorErase, but I didn’t notice any more cooking smells than I’d experience cooking in my conventional oven. For its price and quality, it’s a pretty good value buy – especially for those who want a smaller air fryer without sacrificing performance. There are a few things you lose by opting for this model, though. It doesn’t have a dehydrate setting, there’s no progress or text bar (instead, a small seven-segment screen displays the time, temperature, and cooking stage), and there’s no window nor a light.
This was an interesting experience, given that our french-fry test required more time than the package directions at the recommended temperature. While the jerky’s flavor varies depending on the marinade you use, my top round jerky came out as good as what you can buy in stores and in under 4 hours. Dehydrating is easy to do, even for a first-timer following an online recipe. The crisper plate’s airflow slots trapped debris and needed a firmer scrub. Fortunately, a wash cycle in the dishwasher got the job done, and it only takes up the space of a dinner plate. The rest of the instant vortex lineup is great, but you just might not care about fancy features such as OdorErase, ClearCook or the progress bar.