Senior staff writer Michael Sullivan conducted research and testing for the previous version of this guide. Michael also served as a knowledgeable consultant for the latest round of testing, researching, and writing of this guide. The popular Breville Smart Oven Air got an even smarter upgrade with the ability to connect to an app. Breville leveraged its partnership with ChefSteps, the brand that first introduced the Joule sous vide, to make an app loaded with air fryer recipes and videos. However, you won’t get the stellar performance and extra features that you find on the more expensive models.
The downside, the manual warns, is that things may take longer to cook (though the lid has some holes in it, it’s essentially creating a barrier between your food and the appliance’s heating element and fan). Go from air frying chicken on Friday to cooking a whole rotisserie chicken on Sunday. Additional settings for pizza, toast, bake and broil add versatility and have a beep at the end of the cycle.
The Comfee and Oster cords were both only 2 feet long while the rest were 3 feet or longer. It certainly isn’t the worst failing for a toaster but, depending on your kitchen layout, can be an annoyance. Here’s the big Oster, large enough to roast a small chicken, next to the itty-bitty Balmuda.
The Instant Mini Vortex 4-in-1 is a 2-quart air fryer that packs a big punch. While the Mini Vortex didn’t cook as evenly as the Premium Airfryer, we did think that, given the small size of its shallow, square basket, the food came out surprisingly crisp without tasting dehydrated. The Mini Vortex also cooked just as fast as the Premium Airfryer, with consistently good results. We also found the Philips Premium Airfryer’s basket to be the most seamless to insert into the machine. The square shape of the Premium Airfryer’s 2.75-quart basket also allows a bit more space than round designs with similar capacities, which means you can fit four chicken thighs or wings in the basket versus three.
One argument in favor of countertop toaster ovens is that they use less energy than a full-size traditional oven. That’s true — most full-size electric ovens will draw about 2,400 watts at medium to high heat, while the average toaster oven will draw around 1,500 watts. That means that every time you’re using your toaster oven instead of your full-size oven, you’re cutting your energy consumption hamilton beach by a little over a third. The smallest oven we toasted was the Balmuda which fits only two slices of bread at a time with one rack position. The Breville Mini Smart Oven has the ability to hold at least two racks so you could, in theory, toast as many as eight slices of bread at once. Larger models like the Oster TSSTTVMNDG-SHP-2 and GE G9OAAASSPSS could fit a small whole chicken.
So yeah, it’s really not good for us to eat fried foods, and we hardly ever do. Our assessment of cleaning the air fryer includes both baskets, the interior of the machine and exterior surfaces. Sharon Franke is a journalist who specializes in testing and writing about kitchen equipment. A thirty-year veteran of the hamilton beach Good Housekeeping Institute, Sharon also worked as a professional chef in New York City restaurants for seven years. In her free time, she is an avid home cook who is in the process of mastering the art of baking sour dough bread. 7-9 minutes was the perfect time for me to give them a soft texture with a crunch.
I also tested two pieces of bread on the lowest doneness setting (light) and the highest (dark), to see how well these presets were calibrated. After each of the three toast tests, I photographed the results and made sure to let the toaster oven cool to room temperature before testing again. On top of that, the oven is sturdy, attractive and has an easily removable crumb tray, and it’s packed with extra cooking settings and modes that you might actually find useful, including convection cooking. It also preheats extremely fast, holds the heat well and has intuitive controls. Because air fryers are useful for cooking a variety of foods—such as chicken, steak, and even doughnuts—many of us are under the impression there isn’t anything you can’t cook in them. There’s no small appliance that’s more popular than the air fryer right now.
Plus, when stored upright, the bottom of the oven can be released for cleaning so you can easily wipe it down. Baking them in the oven just never gets that full crisp you get when deep frying, and don’t even get me started about the microwave. In truth, I don’t find toaster oven cooking programs very helpful, and I rarely use them. Since every brand, be it frozen pizza, waffles or mozzarella sticks, vary in size and density, it’s generally best to follow the instructions on the box.
The main thing you need to think about when you’re looking at air fryer toaster ovens is what you’re going to make with it. Size and function are what matter here—and these little ovens come in a variety of shapes, sizes and capacities. For instance, if you think you’re only going to air fry frozen snacks like pizza rolls, you might consider the size of the air fry basket. If chicken is in heavy rotation on your weekly menu, perhaps having a larger oven with a rotisserie function would be useful to you. If your dog likes jerky made out of liver (or if you like it yourself), having an oven with a dehydrator preset is a feature that you and your pup will love. Cleaning is also a consideration—if you’re not good at cleaning up, make sure the oven you pick has a crumb tray to ease the burden of cleaning.