Despite its tiny, 2-quart capacity—it was the smallest air fryer we tested—it held its own against much larger machines. Depending on the food, such as french fries (which can be stacked), brownies, or pizza, the Instant Mini can fit nearly as much as the Philips Premium or the Cosori Pro LE thanks to its wide, shallow shape. What’s more, this air fryer cooked food more evenly than most of the others we tested. Its streamlined interface has only four preprogrammed settings—air fry, roast, bake, and reheat—all operated by a single dial, which makes the Instant Mini easy to use right out of the box. The Chefman looks a lot like our favorite Cuisinart air fryer toaster oven, but is half the price. While it has fewer settings, it still includes dehydrating and slow cooking.
The downside is that if you remove your food before the end of the timer, there’s no way to turn it off other than forcing the timer dial back to zero. I actually found the easiest solution was just to leave the door open until the timer ran out – since it doesn’t operate when the door’s open. The overall design of the Pro LE is streamlined and modern, so it won’t look out of place on a counter. The machine is also light enough to move around or store in a cabinet if you need to free up some space.
When shopping for an air fryer, you’ll likely notice most are black cylinders with a removable basket. If your kitchen boasts stainless steel appliances, you may want what’s on your countertops to match. If you’ve got a dark scheme, you’ll be pleased to know this also comes in a smart-looking black colorway too. This Cuisinart air fryer is sleek and trendy, and you won’t feel bad displaying it.
Since the Cuisinart Airfryer Toaster Oven comes with an array of functions, we were keen to test as many of them as possible. We had a go air-frying homestyle sweet potato fries, frozen thick-cut fries and chicken wings; we baked a cupcake, and used the roast and pizza setting to cook a pizza. This appliance’s chic casing and dial controls have a distinctly retro feel, yet are simple enough to fit into kitchens of any style.
This is low-key one of the most important functions for any oven, especially if you plan to do some light baking in it. If an oven can’t hold an accurate and consistent temperature, it makes following recipes far more difficult, and you’ll be forever adjusting and hawking your food to make sure it doesn’t burn. I used thermocouples to read the internal temperature of the oven while it baked for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.
It excelled at air frying everything we tested, and it toasted bread perfectly evenly. Unfortunately, we needed to extend the cooking time when baking pizza and biscuits by almost half the recommended time. The interior has a nonstick coating that’s easy to wipe clean, and the racks and air fryer basket are dishwasher safe.
If your main priority is simply to get a small, inexpensive appliance to heat food better than a microwave, you might be happy with a small toaster oven without convection. These are even more inexpensive than convection toaster ovens and more suitable for small spaces. cuisinart air fryer oven We recommend the Panasonic FlashXpress (a top pick in our guide to toaster ovens). It won’t blast food with hot air, but it can still bake relatively quickly and provide crispy results due to its small oven cavity, which is similar in size to a pod-shaped air fryer.