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. These are even more inexpensive than convection toaster cuisinart toa60 ovens and more suitable for small spaces. 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 in size to a pod-shaped air fryer.
I roasted a whole chicken at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 55 minutes. In under an hour, I had a perfectly roasted chicken that was evenly cooked. This test was to see how accurate a particular oven’s toaster presets are and how fast it can toast. Every oven on this list has cuisinart air fryer oven a digital interface with dials, buttons or both to control it, although some were much better than others. The Breville’s was the most complex, a result of all its many functions and cooking presets, while the Cuisinart interface was the only one I truly did not like.
Success here depends on high heat and good fan circulation of that hot air, which, in turn, means faster cooking. The faster an air fryer cooks and the more effective the super convection is, the faster the outside skin will crisp, making it less likely the chicken will be dry inside. This is the oven I’ve used most since I owned it even before my wider testing began. And it’s definitely worth nabbing while it’s on sale at the moment.
You lose some of the value-adding features found in dedicated air fryers, such as shake timers and air frying presets. Nevertheless, in our tests, we achieved crispy, delicious air-fried chicken wings and golden fries, as well as some great results using the other settings, too. Air frying and convection cooking both work similarly in the sense that they both use a fan to circulate hot air. Air fryers, however, typically have heating elements that are more concentrated and located on the top, while most convection ovens work with the same heaters already built into an oven or toaster oven. Air fryers also typically have a larger fan that works quicker and is positioned on top of the heating elements versus a convection oven with a smaller fan located in the back or side of the oven.
It offers a large amount of cooking space, but it’s short and folds upwards for storage so it won’t eat up your counter space. Plus, when stored upright, the bottom of the oven can be released for cleaning so you can easily wipe it down. The popular Breville Smart Oven Air got an even smarter upgrade with the ability to connect to an app. Breville leveraged its partnership with ChefSteps, the brand that first introduced the Joule sous vide, to make an app loaded with air fryer recipes and videos.
When we tried cooking chicken nuggets in both baskets, neither basket got as hot as it needed to be—the nuggets in both came out soggy on the inside, with crumbly breading on the outside. The proof setting offers a low temperature range from 80 to 100 degrees F . Directions advise that the first proof should be done at room temperature and then the dough is to be divided, shaped and proofed in the TOA-65.