Best Toaster Oven of 2022

She has worked in test kitchens for small kitchen appliance brands and national magazines, including Family Circle and Ladies’ Home Journal. This is the perfect way to cook chicken thighs for that extra crispy skin and no need to heat up the oven. I ran each toaster oven for 15 minutes at 300 degrees F to measure the temperature accuracy and consistency. With so many to choose from, there are bound to be some over- and under-performers in the category.

In the range, you can find cookers that can be pre-programmed if you are someone who is always on the move. We also have different brands to choose from like Chefman, Cusinart, Ninja Foodi, Philips and more. Pick an Air fryer from our superb range and switch to oil-free, oil-less and quick frying. In our air fryer toaster oven test, the Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro made mostly even toast and a gorgeous, golden cake. The air fryer setting took longer to crisp wings than other air fryer toaster ovens we tested, but the results were similar to the results we saw in the Smart Oven Air that consumers love. It was amongst the easiest to use with an intuitive control panel; plus, the ability to follow along on the app.

hamilton beach air fryer

I also tested two pieces of bread on the lowest doneness setting (light) and the highest (dark), to see how well these presets were calibrated. After each of the three toast tests, I photographed the results and made sure to let the toaster oven cool to room temperature before testing again. On top of that, the oven is sturdy, attractive and has an easily removable crumb tray, and it’s packed with extra cooking settings and modes that you might actually find useful, including convection cooking. It also preheats extremely fast, holds the heat well and has intuitive controls. Because air fryers are useful for cooking a variety of foods—such as chicken, steak, and even doughnuts—many of us are under the impression there isn’t anything you can’t cook in them. There’s no small appliance that’s more popular than the air fryer right now.

My least favorite display was on the Oster, which had one-dimensional backset buttons and a wonky digital screen that offers very little information. The buttons would often not react and required a forceful push, sometimes two. Manual dials are difficult to set accurately both for temperature and time.

Some smart models, like the Cosori Pro Smart Air Fryer, even come with apps that pair with your phone to make the appliance accessible via voice controls (video), though we haven’t tested those features yet. An Air fryer is a kitchen hamilton beach toaster oven appliance that cooks by circulating hot air around food. They do a fantastic job cooking up frozen foods that are meant to taste deep-fried. You can air fry french fries, crispy chicken wings, mozzarella sticks and more.

In addition to the matte black design with rose-gold colored knobs, it also comes in white and stainless steel. Aesthetics aside, this air fryer toaster oven performed well in our tests. Air fried wings took 20 minutes to crisp evenly, released from the air fryer basket easily and stayed juicy. We were pleased that there wasn’t any smoking during air frying and that the oven was easy to use overall. Air fryer toaster ovens offer all the versatility of a toaster oven or countertop oven with the additional benefit of air frying.

I hauled in a whole lot of bread to see how fast and evenly each oven made this breakfast and sandwich staple. A flavor-loving nutritionist and sensory science specialist showing you how to make easy vegetarian recipes, one ingredient at a time. The overall design of the Pro LE is streamlined and modern, so it won’t look out of place on a counter.

The Hamilton Beach, Panasonic’s FlashXpress and Breville Mini Smart Oven were among the top finishers with mostly even cooking and a solid medium color. To ensure the fat renders and the wings crisp, air fry chicken wings at two separate temperatures. It’s important to eat your veggies, and while there are many ways to cook them—the air fryer isn’t a good choice for leafy green vegetables, such as spinach, bok choy, Swiss chard, and kale. The one exception to this rule is that air fryers are great for making veggie chips from these types of vegetables. In February Cosori issued a recall of 21 air fryer models following incidents of them catching fire, melting, overheating, or smoking. Our budget pick, the Cosori Pro LE Air Fryer, isn’t part of the recall.

These are even more inexpensive than convection toaster ovens and more suitable for small spaces. We recommend the Panasonic FlashXpress (a top pick in our guide to toaster ovens). It won’t blast food with hot air, but it can still bake relatively quickly and provide crispy results due to its small oven cavity, which is similar hamilton beach air fryer in size to a pod-shaped air fryer. On the flip side, one of the biggest pitfalls of pod-shaped air fryers is that their compact size really limits not only the amount of food you can cook at once but also the kind of food you can cook. Air fryers can’t fit larger items like casseroles, whole pizzas, or whole chickens.

The Instant Mini Vortex 4-in-1 is a 2-quart air fryer that packs a big punch. While the Mini Vortex didn’t cook as evenly as the Premium Airfryer, we did think that, given the small size of its shallow, square basket, the food came out surprisingly crisp without tasting dehydrated. The Mini Vortex also cooked just as fast as the Premium Airfryer, with hamilton beach air fryer consistently good results. We also found the Philips Premium Airfryer’s basket to be the most seamless to insert into the machine. The square shape of the Premium Airfryer’s 2.75-quart basket also allows a bit more space than round designs with similar capacities, which means you can fit four chicken thighs or wings in the basket versus three.