However, you can give voice commands through Alexa or Google Assistant over Wi-Fi. With the exception of the Ninja (more on this in a second), there is nothing particularly unusual about caring for or cleaning these ovens. They have standard box interiors of various sizes made from stainless cuisinart toa60 steel that will require regular scrubs and wipes. Each oven also has a removable, dishwasher-safe crumb tray to catch fallen fries and toasty bits. Every oven on this list has a digital interface with dials, buttons or both to control it, although some were much better than others.
The manual does give passing mention to the fact that this can happen, but offers no suggestions on how to stop it. Having used windowed air fryers before, we know this is certainly possible; but we haven’t seen it occur as frequently as it did on the large glass pane of the Cuisinart Airfryer Toaster Oven. We also noticed a lot of steam escaping from the left-hand side of the door – which again, was observed by other customers online. On test, we were impressed by all of the cooking settings we tried – the huge caveat being that cooking times and the temperature will likely need adjusting to achieve the best results. For non-meat dishes, we needed to set the temperature to about 25°F lower (roughly 10°C) than the recipe or Cuisinart’s own information booklet recommended. We also air fry french fries and take the same criteria as wings into consideration.
With a low setting for slow cooking and braising, as well as dehydrating and proofing modes, it provides a lot of versatility for the money. In testing, the Cuisinart TOA-65 scored second in food ratings, though just barely, to the Cosori, which ranked Best Overall among nine large air fryers. However, because of this product’s broad functionality, I cooked a slightly wider range of foods with the Cuisinart air-fryer toaster oven, namely bread and baked goods. It has seven cooking functions, including baking, broiling, warming, toast, and air fry.
The cookie race was a photo finish between Ninja and Breville, both of which delivered near-perfect results. The Cuisinart cookie was overbaked (of course), as was the Crux, although just slightly, while the KitchenAid cookie was a tad underbaked. The key thing I looked for here was how well each broiler imported a caramelized crust on the top of the fish. Some ovens, like the Calphalon and Cuisinart, showed almost no signs of browning, while the Ninja and Breville delivered nice color and the beginnings of a good crust.
That range allows home cooks to use this small-but-mighty appliance for everything from proofing bread dough to browning the tops of cheesy dishes such as nachos or lasagna. The functions on air fryer toaster ovens are also designed to carry out those functions in an optimal way. For example, if you’re toasting, the temperature is usually high, and you can pick from different shade settings; if you’re baking, the heat is gentle and doesn’t use a fan so you can get even results. The Ninja Foodi Air Fry Oven has one of the largest air frying racks we tested, measuring in at 13 by 13 inches. The most appealing feature is that it swivels upward for storage so it won’t take up your counter space.
It can be set between 170 and 400°F and uses 97 percent less oil than standard frying methods. Styles from fan-favorite brands like Dash, Instant Pot, and Ninja have made the cut, including a few models that have been rigorously tested and approved by our friends at the Good Housekeeping Institute. Not only have these been shown to cook food to golden perfection, but they also boast handy features such as digital touchscreens and dishwasher-safe accessories for refining everything from kebabs to rotisserie chickens. An additional bamboo board that sits on top of the oven and acts as a heat barrier can be purchased separately. The Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro (BOV950) is both an upgrade from our previous winner, the Breville Smart Oven Compact Convection (BOV670), and an update to the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro (BOV900). And though it may be more advanced than some people may think they need from a countertop toaster oven, it has the kind of functionality that grows on you until you wonder how you ever lived (or at least cooked) without it.
We assess how quickly and evenly they cook and whether they are juicy or dry. We also use this test to help us evaluate whether the oven is prone to smoking and how easy it is to clean afterward. We liked this digital model, but the control panel can be a little tricky.
It’ll take a good chunk of countertop space and won’t be easy to move once it’s there. The oven racks and air fryer basket can be cleaned in the dishwasher, though. Ninja includes an extremely thorough owner’s guide, plus a cookbook that includes charts, recipes, and detailed instructions for multi-rack cooking. This second air fryer test was designed to illuminate the pure power and speed of an individual oven’s air fry function, but also its ability to cook evenly.
Chicken wings are almost universally loved and a very popular item to air fry. The goal for an air-fried wing is a crispy outside and skin with a juicy inside. To test each oven’s air fry ability, I cooked three frozen wings on air fry mode at 450 degrees F for 30 minutes, turning them every 10 minutes. I let each oven come to full preheat before putting the wings in and then photographed them immediately after pulling them out. To make pizza I loosely followed the recipe for Pizza Margherita in the instruction manual but tweaked the toppings to suit what I had available in my fridge.
It is the only appliance other than our espresso machine and drip coffee maker that has been awarded coveted counter space. 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. When the timer went off, the fries were still a bit hard inside and the tops were way more brown than the bottoms, so I turned them and put them back in for an extra five minutes. The finished fries were quite well browned and though they were cooked through, they didn’t have the fluffy centers and crispy outsides that I‘ve come to expect from fries cooked in an air fryer, I was disappointed.