We recommend the Panasonic FlashXpress Toaster Oven for those who want a small oven to make toast, prepare a few frozen snacks, or reheat a couple slices of pizza. We are smitten with its adorable retro 90s design, and after years of long-term testing we continue to be impressed with its strong baking performance, compact size, and reasonable price. The FlashXpress cooked foods to a lovely, even golden brown better than most other models we tried in this price range (and beyond), and its toast shade settings were among the most accurate. For a relatively low price, this toaster oven stands out from a crowded pack of mediocre, cheap models. We found its performance and features to be comparable to those of larger and pricier toaster ovens.
Cuisinart oven’s practicality is reflected in its compact size and low weight of just 21 pounds. It’s easy to clean thanks to its metal manufacturing materials, but mainly stainless steel, which gives it a longer life without damaging the parts. The interior is covered in a non-stick material that prevents the accumulation of grease and dirt and allows easy cleaning.
Air frying toaster ovens have advantages but they typically take longer to cook and the inner cavity can be tricky to clean if food splatters. One thing I don’t love about this model is the steel air fryer basket, which is trickier to clean than the pod-shaped models, most of which feature nonstick cooking baskets. Ninja’s sleek and simple pod air fryer continues to impress in our yearly testing and thus we see no reason to remove it from the top spot.
Despite sounding French, chicken cordon bleu is actually one of the most well-known Swiss recipes in the world. Invented in the 1940s, chicken cordon bleu features layers of meat wrapped around cheese, then breaded and pan fried. The Cuisinart TOB-40 Custom Classic Toaster Oven Broiler is easy to use, but on its medium setting, bread became too dark. Also, this model has no timer, so you’ll have to keep a close watch on your food to prevent it from overcooking. We’ve read some user reviews regarding food catching fire in this oven. Though we never experienced this in over two years of long-term testing, always be sure to place food at least an inch from the heating element.
For our indoor models, we cooked frozen pizza according to package instructions. Each pizza oven was rated on assembly, heat control, performance, and portability. These days, basket-style air fryers can range from $50 to $350, and toaster ovens with air-frying capabilities generally run from $100 to $400. Air fryers don’t generally need to be flashy to be efficient, and the prices reflect that as well.
The body is powder-coated, cold-rolled steel with stainless steel accents. It comes with a stone baking board for the perfect pizza crust, which can handle pizzas up to 13 inches cuisinart choppers (the pizza stone is 13.3 inches wide). Over the past few years, our editors at home and our testing lab have had their hands full with air fryers from dozens of brands.
Kristin Montemarano is a commerce food writer for Food & Wine and Allrecipes, focusing on stories that cover new products, tested favorites, and sales. After graduating from The Culinary Institute of America and working in professional kitchens, Kristin went on to acquire a bachelor’s degree in journalism and graduated in 2021. Overall, it seems that most customers who have purchased an air fryer at Costco have been pleased with their purchase. That said, some commenters noted that Philips brand air fryers are superior to anything sold at Costco. Learn how to cook your Costco Cordon Bleu in the air fryer with this recipe from SimplyAirFryer.com.
While it isn’t the lightest pizza oven on our list, you should be able to pack it up in the car for camping trips, tailgating, and more. Not just for pizza, this oven can be used for other baking or roasting projects, and it comes with two probe thermometers that plug into jacks on the front. Gozney also continually introduces new pizza tools and other accessories to make its ovens even more useful. In all, this oven performed quite similarly to the Ooni Koda above, with a somewhat higher price.