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 moosoo air fryer 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.
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.
Other items that cook up well in the air fryer include vegetables, like brussels sprouts and broccoli; light fish dishes, such as salmon or trout; and Italian favorites, like lasagna or personal pizzas. Air fryers are far more versatile than countertop oil fryers or toaster ovens, so they’re worth a second look even if you’re not a huge fan of standard fried fare. Another bonus of air fryers is that you can open them at any time to check on your food’s progress without losing heat or affecting the cooking time. This helps you get your food to your own perfect level of “fried” for a more personalized meal. Since the air fryer uses such a small amount of oil, you’ll want to stop and shake your air fryer’s basket throughout the cooking process to make sure that nothing gets stuck to the sides.
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 instant pot duo nova 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.
This means you can cut down on your batch cooking and get your food to the table faster. Any good air fryer should excel at crisping up frozen breaded foods. While an oven can often leave one side charred and the other a little soggy, an air fryer will circulate hot air around the food as it cooks and often significantly reduce the cooking time. Not all air fryers have a pre-heat function, but the Instant Vortex Plus does.
With its precise temperature dial, useful reminders and convenient viewing window, we think the instant pot duo nova Plus is great value. We used strong flavours when marinating the chicken tenders in garlic, onion and paprika, and could have benefitted from this feature. When it comes to cleaning, we were able to wash the basket with warm soapy water and wipe down the exterior. We buffed it with a dry microfibre cloth to ensure the shiny stainless-steel, black and ClearCook window exterior remained smudge-free. We started off prepping the broccoli and cauliflower by seasoning them with olive oil and sea salt and placed them straight into the deep 5.7 litre drawer.