For those who prefer to read the instructions, the easy-to-read instruction book is comprehensive and includes several bonus recipes. I followed the recipe in the instruction manual for classic roast chicken. I was skeptical about the 45 minute cook time, cuisinart air fryer oven as my chicken packaging advised almost two hours in a normal oven for a 4lb chicken. Nevertheless, I stuck to the recipe and cooked it on convection bake without preheating for 25 minutes at 400oF, turning it down to 350oF for the final 20 minutes.
By omitting this feature, they made it more difficult for us to set accurate times and temperatures. I also tried air frying frozen breaded fish fillets which is usually my preferred way of cooking these. The crumb was hard and overly crisped, it tasted like it had been under a broiler and the fish inside was drier than usual. Overall the air fryer function just didn’t produce the same results as the best air fryers I’ve tried.
The toast setting works by emitting even heat from the top and bottom of the oven, similar to the way a 2 or 4-slice slot toaster emits heat on two sides of the bread simultaneously. cuisinart air fryer oven For this setting, we placed the wire racks on the middle level of the toaster ovens. For the five finalists that allowed us to choose a level, we set the toaster ovens to level two.
How well the toasters or toaster ovens produced a batch of even, medium-brown toast. For the two that did not, the BLACK+DECKER and the Hamilton Beach, we simply watched and turned off the toaster oven once a crisp, golden brown color was achieved. The toasting time ranged from one minute, 45 seconds to four minutes. The Breville toaster oven proved itself as the latest in technological advancement and the greatest in thoughtful design. Ultimately, the multitude of features is what makes it the clear winner. Helen McCue is a freelance contributor who trained as a Home Economist.
However, I was impressed with the bake and convection bake functions which are very speedy compared to my standard oven and do, I think, compensate for the air fryer performance. The toasting was fine, but you’ll need to turn toast for best results. I used the broil (rather than convection broil) setting and added sausages to the air fry basket so that excess fat would drip out cuisinart choppers into the tray below. It got off to a slow start and they took 10 minutes to brown, then I turned them and after only five more minutes they were browned all over and cooked right through. Browning was a little patchy but inside the sausages were moist and meaty. I think next time, I’d try the convection broil function for a faster cook, though I wasn’t unhappy with the result.