With a large cooking basket and easy-to-understand controls, this is the perfect air fryer for busy families looking to streamline weeknight meals. The basket can fit up to two pounds of fries or even a 4-pound whole chicken. It’s always important not to overcrowd a fryer, so the added space helps keep foods separate, ensuring consistent air flow throughout. With four functions like bake, air fry, reheat, and roast, this basket-style air fryer relies on a fan system to rapidly circulate air like a convection oven. The texture is very important when it comes to fried food.
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. Drip Pan – this pan goes on the bottom of the unit and comes in and out so easily and makes clean up a breeze.
The air fryer is quick, quiet, and has a transparent cooking door that makes it easy to monitor meals. While the basket and crisper plate are dishwasher-safe, I preferred to wash the basket by hand. The basket takes up a lot of real estate in the washer — the nonstick coating releases debris with ease, so it was easy to clean with a sponge. Plus, you can use silicone air fryer liners to almost eliminate the need to wash it altogether. The third performance test I put all air fryers through is cooking a one-pound batch of fresh broccoli.
Browning was better on the second side and was similar to the coloring you get from broiling, rather than the deep brown crusty exterior you get from grilling or even pan frying. But once again, there was no smoke and no greasy splatters on the cooktop or pan to clean up. Are you curious about all the other air fryers we tested out? 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.
Brussels sprouts came out nicely browned with crispy edges, frozen fries had a decadent crunch and melty interior, and bacon was browned and crunchy without getting burnt. The fried chicken and waffles were especially impressive; my family couldn’t believe those chicken thighs hadn’t been deep fried when I brought them to the dinner table. The Ultenic K10 is a bit more of a statement piece aesthetically and rings in a similar size and capacity to the instant vortex Slim. It’s a little pricier but comes with more presets, a companion app, and other smart features. Unlike its siblings, the Instant Vortex Slim doesn’t have a ClearCook window through which you can watch your food cook.
When I’m not putting pen to paper, I’m exploring new cultures through travel and taking on home makeover projects, one room at a time. These units are basically small convection ovens, using super heated circulating air, and there is actually no frying or deep frying at all. One of the things I was most excited to try in the Vortex Air Fryer Oven was a rotisserie chicken. Most of the chickens at my grocery store were too big for the rotisserie spit (under 4 lbs.) The organic chickens at Costco were just barely small enough, so I bought a two-pack. The Manual has good instructions showing how to use the attachments. It’s important to read about the weight and size restrictions when using the rotisserie basket and spit.
Brussels sprouts, frozen French fries and breaded chicken cutlets came out just about perfect; all were browned, crisped, moist and tender. Homemade French fries came out reasonably browned and crispy without becoming dry or cardboard-like in just 18 minutes. This air fryer didn’t perform quite so well on chicken wings though, as these were cooked to doneness, but could have been better browned and crisped.
Maximum cooking temperature is 400ºF / 205ºC and the timer will run for up to an hour. So there you have it, folks – five fantastic benefits of using instant vortex an Instant Pot Vortex Air Fryer! Whether you’re a health nut, a busy parent, or just love good food, this appliance is definitely worth checking out.
We also set both baskets to the same temperature and checked for any discrepancies, and again, the Vortex Plus XL proves accurate. Fortunately, the Vortex Plus XL is easy to clean, and the two smaller baskets are much easier to throw on a drying rack than one larger basket. Sharon Franke is a journalist who specializes in testing and writing about kitchen equipment.
Unfortunately, the interface lighting isn’t as bright as some of the other options in our test suite, which can make it difficult to reach in certain lighting situations. The combination of the dial and digital button interface makes controlling the temperature and time of each basket straightforward. Each basket operates separately, but you can schedule both baskets instant pot duo nova to end simultaneously, which is a nice feature. The preheat, add food and shake segments offer easy-to-understand, real-time instructions. The Rotate mode turns a motor on the right side of the oven that can be used to turn the rotisserie spit or the air fry basket. However, the weight limit is just 4 pounds, and that’s smaller than most grocery store chickens.