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. They ranged from four functions to 13, were a variety of sizes and watts and both manual and digital. For each oven, we evaluated the size (both actual size and internal oven capacity), number of functions, how easy it was to use and how clear the directions manual was, and if it made any special claims. An air fryer toaster oven is a true workhorse and if you’ve been looking for a way to ditch your microwave oven, this might be the way to go. These countertop appliances do exponentially more than just re-heat leftover pizza and make toast extra crispy.
It slid around and looked a bit cheap, and didn’t actually do much to protect you from accidentally releasing the bucket and sending it crashing to the floor. The Pro LE has a simple release button and a guard that’s less conspicuous. The basket is also lighter than the Philips Premium Airfryer’s, and easier to lift with one hand. Hamilton Beach is here to be your partner in the kitchen, ready to support you with products, tips, and culinary inspiration that you can depend on to keep moving forward on your cooking journey. None of the parts are coated with a nonstick finish and hand washing is recommended. The aluminum baking pan became quite stained and we weren’t able to get it completely clean.
These were ridiculously easy and very delicious for a midweek side dish to go along with some seasoned ground beef. Definitely recommend if you have a lot of green beans that need to get eaten ASAP. The baking tray that comes with the Panasonic FlashXpress was much easier to clean than the one that accompanies the Hamilton Beach. The Foodi lists for $240, but can often be found for $200 or less, which I view as solid value considering the quality, versatility and performance of this countertop appliance. You can easily season kale chips with your favorite herbs or spices after cooking.
Here are a few more air fryer recipes you’ll love (find all of our vegetarian air fryer recipes here). Massage the oil into the leaves, making sure each piece of kale has a thin coat of oil. Sprinkle on some salt then toss everything into your air fryer basket. Spread the leaves into a single layer (you may need to cook in batches). Store leftover pork chops in an airtight storage container or tightly wrapped in foil in the refrigerator for up to three days. Reheat in an oven set to 350 degrees F (with a few drops of broth or water to prevent dryness) until the pork is heated through.
That means we fried more than 20 pounds of wings and frozen fries to see how quickly and evenly they crisped up. As in other toaster oven air fryers, a shallow basket is provided for air frying food in a single layer. We were very happy with the browning and crisping on breaded chicken breasts. Brussels sprouts and frozen crinkle fries came out lightly browned and crisped. However, neither chicken wings or French fries came out with the kind of results we’d expect from fried food. If you want to cook multiple ways but don’t want a cluttered kitchen countertop, you need an appliance that does it all.
We were able to get somewhat better browning by extending the cook time. For example, when we cooked chicken nuggets, we set every air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for seven minutes, per the nuggets’ air hamilton beach air fryer fryer cooking instructions. 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.
Wings and fries also crisped up quickly, nicely and evenly in our air fryer tests. I found the toaster ovens with digital displays easiest to program since you dial into your preferred level of doneness on a six- or seven-point scale rather than guesstimating with a timer hamilton beach toaster oven knob. My favorite display was on Breville’s Mini Smart Oven, which was simple and easy to use with dials that accurately adjust the cooking time for both doneness and number of slices. This model also has an “a bit more” button and a cool-down mode to stop cooking faster.
(Ahem, Thanksgiving.) This toaster oven can handle a 13-by-9-inch baking dish, 12-cup muffin tin or even a 14-pound turkey. And if you’re into baking your own bread, it can even proof your dinner rolls to complement the feast. In April 2022, Best Buy recalled 770,000 Insignia air fryer models—including digital, analog, and air fryer toaster oven models—which amounts to roughly 3% of all air fryers sold in the US over the past two years.