Lastly, I tried a slightly rogue test of frozen cinnamon rolls. I tried the bake setting at 320ºF / 160ºC for 15 minutes, resulting in fabulously flaky pastry with a moist middle. These Lemongrass Air Fryer Drumsticks are juicy, crispy, and packed with flavor. These instant vortex chicken legs are butterflied to make it easier to eat and better for the marinade to stick which means extra flavor and less marinating time. Now, that’s a perfect recipe for your weekly recipe rotation. Easy to use, easy to clean, fast, versatile and convenient.
In my tests to find the best air fryer, the Instant Vortex performed similarly to the best overall winner, the Ninja Air Fryer Max XL, but it’s slightly less versatile since it has fewer functions. Like the Ninja, it produced crispy yet tender chicken and golden brown french fries. In fact, it even holds slightly more food than the Ninja. The four preset options—air fry, bake, roast, and reheat—all performed perfectly. It is wider and heavier than the Ninja, which means it takes up more space on the countertop and is slightly less portable.
It’s large enough to fit an entire chicken, so it’s an easy way to cook an entire dinner. Thanks to the nonstick surface, this air fryer is ideal for baking, too. Thanks to the super-slick nonstick coating on the Instant Vortex’s basket, it’s very easy to clean. Food easily wipes away (though the basket is also dishwasher-safe).
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The window in the basket takes the guesswork out of knowing when your food is ready, and cleanup is a snap. If you can afford the hefty price tag, this is the air fryer to get. The instant pot duo nova Plus features a replaceable air filter designed to remove odors. To test this, I ran the air fryer until it burned bacon-topped deviled eggs placed in a silicone liner. The filter didn’t completely remove the odors, but I could smell it much less than when I cook items in other air fryers. Just like the earlier generations of air fryers I don’t think these are great products for large families (5+).
If there had been a helpful manual included with the XL Dual, with appropriate and accurate cooking instructions, this air fryer would have been a home run. Its easy-to-use interface makes it easy to roast potatoes and air fry chicken at the same time (and have them ready at the same time, thanks to the SyncFinish feature). In the other air fryers we tested the bacon was blown around the inside of the cooking area by the powerful convection fan inside the air fryer, but the Instant Vortex Plus did not do this. It left us with sizzling rashers that weren’t overcooked, and five minutes was the perfect amount of cooking time. As you’ll see in the full review below, we put the Instant Vortex Plus 6 Quart 6-in 1 Air Fryer to the test cooking fries, chicken strips, bacon, and roast vegetables.
The Instant Vortex Plus 6-in 1 Air Fryer with ClearCook and OdorErase comes in a medium-size box that’s well-packed to keep your air fryer safe as it ships. The packaging was not too sustainable, with styrofoam layers at the top and bottom of the fryer that cannot be recycled. When you put food on multiple trays at at time, it doesn’t cook evenly, so you must swap the trays halfway through your cooking time.
That’s low enough to reheat your food without overcooking. But overall, this machine worked effortlessly at roasting, crisping, and heating food. On the front of the air fryer is a handle that’s used to pull out the basket, which requires minimal fuss or force. Inside is a lift-out tray whose metal handle tucks in flush to the tray, meaning you don’t lose precious space in the center of the fryer as we’ve seen with some other models. The tray and basket are both dishwasher-friendly, too, making for fuss-free meals from start to finish. Having mostly tested larger air fryers, and as a single-person household, in particular, I was delighted to have the instant pot duo nova Slim at my disposal.
As the manufacturer claims you can cook 2 pounds of French fries, we cooked a whole bag at once. Yes, the basket could hold that much and cook them quickly, but they came out uneven with some overly crisped and others still soft and pale, so we wouldn’t recommend it for this. On our tests, we found that the Instant Pot 6 Quart Vortex 4 in 1 Air Fryer Oven performed best on brussels sprouts and frozen French fries. In fact, it was the only air fryer to score full marks for frozen French fries, needing just 15 minutes to cook.
With just a few simple ingredients and about 15 minutes in the air fryer, you’ll have a dish that’s sure to impress. We were struck by the sleek controls on the Instant Vortex Plus, which only illuminate when the air fryer is plugged in. You can control the timings and temperature using a dial on the front of the air fryer, and pressing down on this dial will confirm your choices. The air fryer comes with the basket in place, and the removable non-stick air fryer insert at the top of the styrofoam packaging.