There are some awfully expensive air fryers out there, but the Cosori Pro LE proves that higher price doesn’t always mean higher quality. It has a really nice, compact, sleek, and—most importantly—safe design. Air fryers have gained popularity for producing crispy, evenly browned “fried” foods without the use of a deep fryer. They work by circulating hot air around food, similarly to a convection oven, and eliminate the need for much (if any) cooking oil. Many air fryers are programmed with multiple cooking functions and can double as a toaster oven, convection oven, warmer, rotisserie, indoor grill, and more.
I found the built-in light to be a helpful feature in the Instant Vortex, and in the Breville oven. Other fryers—like the Cosori, Dash, and Philips—lacked this handy light and were a little harder to use. This air fryer pre-heats, which is not a feature you’ll find with the Ninja air fryers we tested alongside this model. The pre-heat took about a minute and a half, after which the air fryer prompts you to add your food. If you don’t want the hassle of pre-heating it and then adding your food, we suspect that adding it in when you set the air fryer up to pre-heat won’t make too much of a difference to cooking times.
Unlike most pod-style air fryers, you don’t have to open the basket and let heat escape to check if your food is done. On the Instant Vortex Plus, you can just press the light button and look through the window. It combines the visibility of a toaster oven with the efficiency of a pod air fryer. To test the Instant Vortex, I considered factors like portability, versatility, and overall performance. To judge portability, I first assessed the size and weight of the air fryer and the length of the cord (a longer cord will give you more options for where to put a countertop appliance). I looked at how simple and straightforward the machine is to assemble without instructions, and also considered how easy the control panel was to read and use.
Are you frying a small batch of wings or french fries for the family on burger night? Make sure the fryer you choose can handle the amount of food you want to cook. There are also options that have two baskets that can cook two different foods simultaneously and at different settings.
Resembling a tabletop model of the Death Star, this flip-top air fryer was too tall to open fully under our cabinets. Its heating element was contained under its heavy lid, which threatened to crash down and burn our hands if we weren’t careful to engage its locking mechanism when checking on the food. We’ve tested models that automatically preheat and ones that let you get cooking without any preheating. In our tests, we found foods cooked similarly whether we preheated or not. Some air frying guides recommend preheating for better results when air frying meat you want to get a nice sear on, like steak and chicken breasts.
We did find it browned frozen French fries and chicken nuggets well, but the limited capacity of the inner pot made it difficult to air fry large batches of food. The has four pre-programmed settings to air fry, bake, roast and reheat similar to the Instant Pot’s seven settings. The caveat here is the Vortex only has eight buttons, four of which are those programs, plus Start, Cancel, Time and Temp.
As briefly touched on, both units have the standard air fryer cooking methods we expect and a little more, with both units being able to air fry, bake, reheat and roast. The Instant Pot Vortex is an air fryer from Instant pot which can air fry, bake, reheat and roast. The Instant Pot Vortex Plus has the functionality of the Vortex with the added functions of dehydrating and broiling food.
The 5.7 litre (10 pints) cooking drawer is deep and we found it could easily handle at least five portions of chips in one go. Its interior is, in fact, capable of housing a 1.8kg chicken or 1kg of fries with little instant pot duo nova to no oil needed when cooking. The Instant™ Vortex® Plus is sleek, versatile, and convenient, with rotisserie and One-Step EvenCrisp™ air flow for a perfect golden finish and crispy, tender results every time.
First, I put the Instant Vortex Slim to the test with a portion of steak fries and salmon. The recipe book suggested 390ºF / 200ºC for minutes for the fries and 350ºF / 176ºC for 8-12 minutes for the salmon. Since I was cooking the fish from frozen, I popped it in the tray once there were 8 minutes left on the timer for the fries. And less noise doesn’t come at the expense of high-quality results – the Instant Vortex Slim upkeeps its siblings’ fantastic legacy of perfectly air-fried meals. Its temperature settings range from 95ºF / 35ºC to 400ºF / 205ºC, and the timer can go up to 60 minutes. We will keep this review updated with information on how long this takes.