This model produced golden-brown toast with good texture and churned out a half-a-bag of frozen fries in minutes. The air fry basket can be a bit tough to remove, so take that into account and use an oven mitt when reaching for your food. Bone-in skin-on chicken breasts came out with moist meat and crunchy skin after 45 minutes and we found store-bought sugar cookie dough baked well according to package instructions. While it does come with fewer presets than the Breville, this model is sure to do the trick for those who want to expand their air frying horizons without sacrificing the functionality of a toaster oven. The Cosori Pro LE Air Fryer was the best model we tested for around $100.
Some smart models, like the Cosori Pro Smart Air Fryer, even come with apps that pair with your phone to make the appliance accessible via voice controls (video), though we haven’t tested those features yet. An Air fryer is a kitchen appliance that cooks by circulating hot air around food. They do a fantastic job cooking up frozen foods that are meant to taste deep-fried. You can air fry french fries, crispy chicken wings, mozzarella sticks and more.
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.
All of the ovens performed fairly well in this test, with the exception of the Cruxgg. The Breville Smart Mini and Panasonic FlashXpress both held an average temp of 310, just 10 degrees more than the target temp which is a good mark for any oven. The Balmuda Steam oven can only be set to 350, 400 or 450 degrees F, so I ran the same test at 350 F. It also did well, running an average of just 12 degrees above the target temp.
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 air fryer 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.
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.
My least favorite display was on the Oster, which had one-dimensional backset buttons and a wonky digital screen that offers very little information. The buttons would often not react and required a forceful push, sometimes two. Manual dials are difficult to set accurately both for temperature and time.