I followed the recipe in the instruction manual for classic roast chicken. I was skeptical about the 45 minute cook time, as my chicken packaging advised almost two hours in a normal oven for a 4lb chicken. Nevertheless, I stuck to the recipe and cooked it on convection bake without preheating for 25 minutes at 400oF, turning it down to 350oF for the final 20 minutes. The bagel was nicely browned in around four minutes, which is slightly longer than the 2-3 minutes that it might usually take in one of the best toasters. But it’s still quicker than a broiler, since it doesn’t need time to preheat. Another plus is that there’s enough room for six slices of bread at once and you can toast up really thick sliced bread that wouldn’t fit in a standard toaster.
This Cuisinart doesn’t have digital controls like most of its competitors do, but the rotary dials are a no-brainer to operate. It’s narrower and taller than a standard toaster oven, but still fits under a standard cabinet. It’s also big enough to accommodate two pounds of fries, six slices of bread, and a four-pound chicken. Be aware that all the parts need to be hand-washed instead of going into the dishwasher. Even at this low price, you get a digital control panel with automatic programs.
When toasting bread, two slices took a little over four minutes, I didn’t turn them during toasting and although crisped on both sides, the top was much better browned than the underside. So if you’re particular about both sides being the same color, you’ll probably need to turn the bread over mid-way through. The temperature dial is marked in 50° increments without dots in-between, so it’s not easy to be very accurate when setting the temperature. Furthermore, turning the timer dial on is how each cooking function is switched on, and though it’s a good safety feature that it automatically switches off when the timer runs out.
The Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven browned toast unevenly and produced tough, dehydrated fries in our tests. The cake we baked was too dark and rose unevenly because the lip on the oven rack tilted the pan. The cake also came out rippled on top, apparently from the force of the fan, which was especially loud while running.
But they can still be fussy or challenging for beginners, and there aren’t enough of them to justify the oven’s premium price. The Cosori shares many features of models that cost double the price. It doesn’t cook quite as evenly as our other picks, but the results were still decent, especially considering its relatively low price. I was wowed by the golden-brown color and crispness that I got on chicken wings with the Cuisinart.
It offers many settings, including “Proof” so you can proof your bread dough, a setting we’re seeing more and more in air fryer toaster ovens that offer low temps. When we test the air frying function on appliances and air fryers, we cook a pound of chicken wings and a pound of french fries in each machine to see how quickly and evenly each crisps up. We also assess several ease-of-use factors like whether the appliance has an intuitive control panel and is easy to clean.
The air fryer toaster oven comes with a metal mesh basket for air frying, a broil rack and a baking tray. It has a 30-minute timer, a stay-on setting so you can cook food for longer than 30 minutes or set your cuisinart choppers own timer and auto-shutoff. Take note that it’s a little tricky to set an exact timer because the time increments are in denoted in units of five, so there are no specific markings for the individual minutes.
One of our most important and telling toaster oven tests is making toast. We fill the rack with bread three times and toast each batch on a different setting. We evaluate how evenly and consistently the oven cuisinart toa60 toasts as well as how much the low, medium and high settings differ from one another. We know that an air fryer toaster oven must be able to toast well since it’s one of the most commonly used features.
While I can crank out a huge holiday meal with the best of them, these days I’m mostly making family meals that involve the toaster oven, and increasingly the air fryer. With a lot of accessories—a crisper basket, the baking dish, and a rotisserie spit— you’ll need to clear plenty of cabinet space to store everything. All of the parts require hand washing and since they’re not nonstick, this can be a bit of a chore, especially after you’ve air fried battered chicken. Its large nonstick sheet pan can cook chicken, beef, or shrimp and veggies for four in under 30 minutes. The oven is beautifully designed with intuitive, easy-to-read electronic controls. The preprogrammed times and temperatures cover many functions and types of food.