Additionally, we compared the cooking capacity of each model, and we took note of any egregiously noisy fans or annoying beeps. In our tests, the rotisserie spit worked well and produced a nicely roasted chicken, but you have to know how to truss a bird in order for it to cook evenly, and afterward we had to soak the spit overnight to get the gunk off. Toaster-oven air fryers usually have heating elements on the top and the bottom, as well as a fan on the top or the side of the ovens interior. And, like the Philips, this Cosori model is about as loud as a hair dryer while the convection fan is running. Overall it produced the crispiest, most evenly browned food of any pod-shaped models we tested. Unlike most air fryers, the 7-quart Gourmia Digital Air Fryer GAF798 requires preheating (probably due to its large size). You may want a small, pod-shaped air fryer if you have limited counter space, or if you plan to make only one or two servings of food at a time. Smaller households that plan to make only one or two portions of food at a time may also prefer this model. It is, however, pretty loud while the convection fan is runningits about as loud as a hair dryer (whereas the Cuisinart convection toaster oven barely makes a sound). *At the time of publishing, the price was $85. The Hamilton Beach Sure-Crisp Air Fryer Toaster Oven had a weak fan that was unable to circulate air through the oven as effectively as those of some of the other models we tested. Cuisinart Chef's Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1, more tips for cooking air-fryer recipes in the Cuisinart, offer electric pressure cookers with air-frying capabilities, Black+Decker Crisp N Bake Air Fry Toaster Oven, Hamilton Beach Sure-Crisp Air Fryer Toaster Oven, Philips Avance Collection Airfryer HD9641/96, Philips Avance Collection Airfryer XL HD9240/94, I Tried The Airfryer Kitchen Gadget Thats All Over The Internet, Corporate Fare, Frozen: A Donald Deskey Associates Cafeteria Concept, Why We Love Cuisinart Chefs Convection Toaster Oven, Why After Four Years We Finally Recommend Air Fryers. Unfortunately, the Instant Vortex Plus browned toast unevenly and produced tough, dehydrated fries in our tests. We also tested seven other pod-shaped air fryers for our 2021 update. But your tastebuds will tell you that air-fried food isnt anything like traditionally deep-fried food in flavor and texture. And the Cuisinart is still small enough that it can preheat and cook faster than a standard oven. We have more tips for cooking air-fryer recipes in the Cuisinart below. However, if you have your eye on a recipe written specifically for an air fryer but want to prepare it in a convection toaster oven, you have to make some minor adjustments for the best results. You prefer a more casual approach to cooking your food, and you find tossing it in a basket to be less cumbersome than turning it by hand. If youre looking for a larger air fryer, we recommend getting our pick, the Cuisinart TOB-260N1. But if you dont plan to bake in it, we think its a suitable choice for cooking frozen snacks, smaller portions of meat and vegetables, or certain dishes you want extra crispy, like chicken wings or flautas. Since Cuisinart doesnt market the TOB-260N1 as an air fryer, it doesnt come with a cooking chart for commonly air-fried foods. Convection has been around for more than a century. Plus, the narrow interior cant fit a whole chicken. Bottom line: We recommend getting the Philips air fryer only if its suitable for your space and lifestyle. This air fryer isnt an eyesore like some oddball machines weve tried over the years, so it wont look like an alien spaceship has landed on your kitchen counter. The NuWave Bravo XL Air Fryer Smart Oven has an overwhelming amount of buttons, which are confusing and overly complicated. The rotisserie spit in the Emeril Lagasse Power AirFryer 360 struggled to make a full rotation while roasting a chicken. The Cuisinart TOB-260N1 heats quite evenly from edge to edge, as this toast heat map shows. Fat naturally drains to the bottom of the air fryer whether you use the fat-reducing tray or not. We also made batches of frozen french fries and tasted them to see whether any pieces ended up under- or overcooked; in addition, we baked frozen breaded chicken tenders and fish sticks to see whether they browned evenly or ended up with soggy bottoms. The Philips Premium HD9741/96 we recently tested is a newer version of, and performs similarly to, the Avance. Generally, if youre following an air-fryer recipe but plan to cook it in a convection toaster oven, you need to increase the cooking time and temperature to compensate for the toaster ovens larger cavity. (Since cramped, pod-shaped air fryers heat up quickly and keep food so close to the heating element, things would overcook if you didnt reduce the temperature.) Products shown as available are normally stocked but inventory levels cannot be guaranteed, For screen reader problems with this website, please call 1-800-430-3376 or text 38698 (standard carrier rates apply to texts), Deep air fryer with adjustable thermostat and timer, Offers 2.5 lbs. (Or, if you already own an Instant Pot, you may want to try a compatible Instant Pot air-fryer lid.). All Rights Reserved. The Philips is one of the best-designed pod-shaped air fryers weve tested due to its small footprint, streamlined interface, and sleek looks. Now anyone can enjoy crispy, flavorful fried foods without the guilt! We also have general advice on how to adjust air-fryer recipes for your convection toaster oven. On average, cooking food in the Cuisinart took us a few minutes longer than in most of the air fryers we tested, but its superior results (as well as its ability to cook more food at once) are well worth a little extra time. Though not specifically billed as an air fryer, the Cuisinart Chef's Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1 remains the best appliance weve tested for air frying food. Annoyingly, however, if you want to add a few minutes to the cooking time after the initial set time runs out, the appliance automatically kicks into preheat mode again (even though the air fryer is already hot); its a weird programming glitch that we found to be a nuisance. Needless to say, most food took longer to cook because the ovens temperature was wildly off. 2000-2022 Home Depot. We also used all of the controls to see how easy they were to navigate and how accurate the cooking guidelines were for preparing common foods like french fries and fish sticks. For instance, when we used the fish setting, the fish sticks we cooked were done two minutes sooner than the preprogrammed time. Like the Philips, the Cosori has a square-shaped basket that fits more food than the round baskets in other models. This is a quarter-sheet pan after we used it to roast a chicken in the Cuisinart. For our 2019 update, we decided to begin testing the toaster-oven air fryers as we would regular toaster ovens. Even though many of the air fryers we tested cooked food faster than the Cuisinart, the results werent necessarily better. They used the same technology as convection baking under the guise of a trendy new term: air frying. Since then, to stay on trend, some manufacturers have started calling their convection toaster ovens and electric ranges air fryer ovens. The Cuisinart Chefs Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1 predates the air-fryer craze (so you wont see that buzzword on the box), but we think it yields better results than any pod-shaped air fryer weve tested. We think many people are likely to be happier with the larger cooking capacity and versatility of a convection toaster oven. Engineered to ensure golden brown results, this high-efficiency unit airfries 2.5 lb. For instance, in our tests, the setting for cooking fish was too lowwhen cooking fish sticks, we had to increase the temperature from 350 F to 400 F and the time from 10 minutes to 16 minutes in order to achieve the crispiest results. If youre having trouble choosing which type of air fryer to get, heres how wed decide. However, we wish the reminder were programmed for all settings, since its hard to remember which ones have this feature and which ones dont (its activated only for the shrimp, frozen food, frozen fries, vegetable, and root vegetable settings). The overall design of the Cosori is streamlined and sleek, so it wont look out of place on a counter. This model has 13 preprogrammed settings, which is a bit overkill. The Cuisinarts two-speed fan, combined with its spacious interior, allowed it to cook food more evenly than the competition. It was capable of baking only a 6-inch cake, and since it didnt allow control over the fan speed, its blast of hot air caused our cake to mushroom into what looked like a giant muffin top. The toast we made in the TOA-60 was also unevenly browned. You mainly want to cook frozen food or smaller portions of food. That said, its slightly slower cooking time often produced more evenly cooked food that was better tasting. Sponges are easily shredded by the basket screens rough texture. The chickens we roasted in the finalist models (from left to right): the Oster Black Countertop Toaster Oven with Air Fryer, the Cuisinart TOB-260N1, the Farberware Air Fryer Toaster Oven, and the Philips HD9641/96 (now replaced by the nearly identical Philips HD9741/96). If youre not sure whether you want a convection toaster oven or an air fryer, weve written a helpful checklist so you can better understand the trade-offs for each appliance. You dont mind more cleanupincluding the extra care necessary to prolong the life of the fryer baskets nonstick coating. And most offer more cooking options, such as preprogrammed settings for making toast, baking pizza, or dehydrating fruit (though we recommend getting a dedicated dehydrator if you want to make a significant amount of dried food). Previously, he was an editor at the International Culinary Center in New York. However, compared with other models, this Philips air fryer had the most accurate preprogrammed settings, and the appliance maintained its temperature well. On certain settings, this model alerts you with five beeps halfway through the cooking time to remind you to shake your food for more even browning, something the Philips doesnt do. Like the Philips, the Cosori has a removable basket to hold your food while it cooks. You cant adjust or turn off its powerful convection fan, which means its not great for baking and you cant use it to make toast. And even then, none of those nine performed better than our favorite toaster oven with convection, the Cuisinart Chefs Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1. Its shallow basket made tossing food without spilling more difficult. Like the larger model above, the Cuisinart AFR-25 Compact AirFryer was good at cooking fries quickly. Cake layers rose unevenly and ended up overbaked, especially in the Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven, which produced a cake with a dark patch on top in the exact same shape as the fan. Weve added new information to the Competition section regarding the Insignia air fryers that were recalled by Best Buy in April 2022. We repeated all of these tests for our 2021 update and cooked chicken wings in the finalists. The chicken fingers we cooked were done in about 20 minutes, versus the preprogrammed setting of 25. We recommend using this setting anytime you want extra-crispy results, especially when preparing frozen finger foods, french fries, or chicken wings. Again, the results from the now-discontinued Philips Avance HD9641/96 (left) and the Cuisinart (right) were the same. *At the time of publishing, the price was $300. The french fries we cooked in the GoWISE USA GW22621 turned out badly burned at the top of the cooker and undercooked at the bottom. We also like that the Cosori has a plastic guard that covers the baskets release button (pictured below), which prevents you from inadvertently pressing it while shaking your food. In our tests, it didnt cook as evenly as the Philips, but we found its results perfectly acceptable considering its lower price. It also has the best accessories of any model weve tested, including a 13-inch ceramic pizza stone, two oven racks, and an enamel-coated steel baking pan. https://www.tiktok.com/@cuisinart_official? Due to the Cuisinart TOB-260N1s large interior, this model took about five minutes longer to cook frozen french fries (on the speed convection setting) than some of the smaller air fryers we tested took. However, we found that in most cases, the same temperatures youd use to cook in a standard oven can also be used in the Cuisinart, whereas smaller, pod-shaped air fryers require you to cook at lower temperatures. We dont think the fat-reducing tray in the Philips Premium HD9741/96 is very usefulits just one more thing you need to wash after cooking. The Philips Premium Airfryer HD9741/96 is the best pod-shaped air fryer weve tested. Its chicken fingers and fish sticks, however, had somewhat soggy undersides. We also conducted all of the same tests in the now-discontinued Philips Avance HD9641/96the pod-shaped air fryer that in our 2017 tests performed the bestso that we could compare the results. Ive spent more than 250 hours over the past four years researching and testing air fryers for this guide. The Cuisinart TOB-260N1 toaster oven preheats almost immediately, making it the better choice if speed is part of what appeals to you about an air fryer. Unlike some toaster-oven air fryers we tested, such as the Cuisinart TOA-60, the Cuisinart TOB-260N1 is large enough to bake a 13-inch pizza, roast a 5-pound chicken, or toast up to nine slices of bread at once. Aside from its fryer basket, all of its accessories are sold separately. In contrast, the vegetables we roasted in the Cuisinart were caramelized and tender, and cake layers were golden and moist, results that we think are well worth the slightly slower cooking time. You dont want to buy extra accessories (like baking trays or pizza stones) to get the most out of your appliance. In that time, Im pretty sure Ive eaten more fish sticks and french fries than the Gortons Fisherman and Ronald McDonald combined. The smaller, unevenly cooked chicken we prepared in the now-discontinued Philips Avance HD9641/96 (left) and the larger, beautifully browned chicken we roasted in the Cuisinart (right). By subscribing, you acknowledge that you have read and agreed to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Aside from air frying, the Cuisinart also made very even batches of toast (setting number 3 made perfect golden-brown toast in our tests). The first commercially sold convection ovens were developed by the W. L. Maxson Corporation in the 1940s as a way to reheat frozen food for airplanes. We found that pod-shaped air fryers often had more powerful fans, too, but this wasnt necessarily a good thing, since they could produce dried-out foods and overcooked, ripply cakes.