Monica is Reviewed’s senior Kitchen & Cooking staff writer and an avid home cook; she’s been testing a wide range of kitchen products at Reviewed for over a year. Previously the Digital Editor at Culture Cheese Magazine (and a former barista), she’s also had her work published in The Boston Globe, Modern Luxury, Boston Magazine, and more. It’s a user-friendly app that allows you to search for recipes or browse according to whatever Instant appliance you have in your home. Once you “Start Cooking,” it guides you through the cooking process step-by-step with no room for confusion. You can also “heart” or share a recipe to save it for later use. Brussels sprouts came out nicely browned with crispy edges, frozen fries had a decadent crunch and melty interior, and bacon was browned and crunchy without getting burnt.
It took about four minutes of pre-heating for the air fryer to reach temperature, and this is worth bearing in mind if you’re running a tight cooking schedule and juggling a range of foods. After four minutes, the air fryer beeped and its digital display told us to “add food”. The display is easy to navigate with pre-sets for air frying, roasting, baking, reheating, grilling and rehydrating. They’re conveniently positioned just above a central dial control, which lets you easily adjust the time and temperature too – from a very specific cooler 49°C to a powerful 205°C. Most removable parts (the cooking basket, tray, and any other cooking accessories) on most air fryers are dishwasher-safe.
The Instant Vortex Plus 6-in 1 Air Fryer with ClearCook and OdorErase is the first of its kind to almost entirely eliminate cooking odors, but this is far more than a gimmick. The air fryer is quick, quiet, and has a transparent cooking door that makes it easy to monitor meals. Our assessment of cleaning the air fryer includes both baskets, the interior of the machine and exterior surfaces.
Of all the air fryers we tested, this is one of the most intuitive air fryers to program. The buttons are nicely sized, clearly marked, and quick to respond. To program the temperature and time, you turn and press a dial. The basket has a rack on which the food rests and is easy to pull out and reposition in the air fryer. The display is large and easy to read and the digital controls are intuitive to use. Like other Instant Vortex models, you won’t require much oil when cooking in the Slim air fryer.
Once pressed, you can adjust the latter two buttons using a silver roller dial. This model sported a powerful “Max Crisp” function that allowed it to reach 450 degrees and cook food quickly, if unevenly. But while its cooking basket was deep, holding a full 2 pounds of frozen fries, it was too narrow to fit four chicken cutlets in a single layer, limiting its usefulness for larger recipes. The unit was tall and heavy with a cooking tray with silicone bumpers that clung tightly to the walls of its cooking basket and was hard to extract.
Speaking of cleanup, all the attachments included (air fryer basket, trays, rotisserie spit parts) are dishwasher-safe. Points to Instant for making my after-dinner routine shorter in that regard. Note that the Instant Vortex Slim doesn’t come with OdorErase, but I didn’t notice any more cooking smells than I’d experience cooking in my conventional oven. For its price and quality, it’s a pretty good value buy – especially for those who want a smaller air fryer without sacrificing performance. There are a few things you lose by opting for this model, though. It doesn’t have a dehydrate setting, there’s no progress or text bar (instead, a small seven-segment screen displays the time, temperature, and cooking stage), and there’s no window nor a light.
Food easily wipes away (though the basket is also dishwasher-safe). This air fryer also has a few extra bells and whistles that helped it stand out from the rest. It has built-in safety features like overheat protection and an auto-off sensor that powers the oven down when not in use.
When cooked well the bacon should be crisp and the fat should be rendered, leaving a lot of fat at the base of the air fryer basket. After air frying the chicken for 15 minutes, we found the insides to be suitably tender and the exterior noticeably crunchier than the results given by some air fryers we’ve tried. A great all-rounder, the instant pot duo nova Plus gives you the option to air fry, roast, grill, bake, reheat and dehydrate. We love its very specific variable temperature dial that ranges from 49°C to 205°C ( 120°F to 401°F) to suit your food. Meanwhile, its illuminated ClearCook window allows you to monitor your food without disrupting the cooking cycle.