Our evaluations and opinions are not influenced by our advertising relationships, but we may earn a commission from our partners’ links. This content is created by TIME Stamped, under TIME’s direction and produced in accordance with TIME’s editorial guidelines and overseen by TIME’s editorial staff. Learn more about it.
If there’s one thing nearly everyone can agree on, it’s that there are not enough hours in the day. From wrangling children to meeting work demands, it’s a truth universally acknowledged that we are all strapped for time and often feel like we’re running on fumes. Investing in an air fryer oven to reduce preheating and cooking time is one way to save time and still have high-quality, delicious meals.
When looking for the best air fryers, these ovens are smaller than the traditional ones and provide a crispy, healthy way to whip up food without requiring much oil. There is a wide range of air fryers out there, but I was lucky enough to test these out with a variety of different at-home chefs, from overworked parents to those living solo with limited counter space.
Breville’s The Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro is definitely a splurge-worthy item, but it’s also the most impressive with multi-function capabilities for multitasking. In other words, you can create precisely cooked meals without much effort at all.
To test the air fryer, we made squash. From the start, we were impressed by how much we could fit on the air-frying tray while still leaving plenty of space for proper air circulation. There are a ton of settings on this air fryer, and the controls on the face were surprisingly easy to use.
Oversized, versatile, splurge-worthy oven that provides bells and whistles.
While this pick from Breville is on the pricier side, it comes with many benefits like smart algorithms that replicate the ideal cooking environment for air frying, as well as ten cooking techniques. The marriage of high temperatures and super convection speeds reveals the kind of crisp bite that we all salivate over. Plus, it uses 35% less power compared to a traditional oven, saving on electricity costs.
This multi-function appliance is easy to set-up and simple to use with a sleek design, and reliable cooking time.
If you’ve ever wondered what type of air fryer a professional uses, this is it. The Dreo ChefMaker took inspiration from celebrity chefs, food scientists, and an algorithm of AI experts when creating this appliance. The end result provides every day at-home cooks (and aspiring chefs) to practice upgraded cooking techniques like sous-vide and pressure cooking.
This smart, versatile air fryer oven allows you to do nearly everything you need to do in the kitchen, all with a sleek, modern design.
At just over $100, this air fryer toaster oven from Instant provides tons of functionality without a high cost. From built-in smart technology and customizable programming, to the super-slim design ideal for smaller kitchens, it’s a worthwhile investment.
This budget-friendly, sleek air fryer is great for reheating leftovers and adding crispiness to your favorite foods.
What happens when you want to cook vegetables and meat at the same time, but they require different temperatures and settings? You pull out this two-zone air fryer oven that helps you multitask like a professional. The top portion is an air fryer basket, and the bottom is a traditional oven. You can even use a “Sync Finish” feature to automatically align the cooking times of both zones, so all food is finished at the same time. Talk about a way to get through meal prep without a headache.
This touchscreen dual-compartment air fryer allows you to cook two different aspects of your meal at once, without requiring preheating time.
If you care about both cooking and aesthetics, this $200 Fritarie Air Fryer offers a smart solution for whipping up delicious meals quickly and is designed with style in mind. It comes complete with three cooking accessories: A rotisserie, a French tumbler, and the air fryer basket. You can choose from six one-touch cooking functions and utilize many features.
This compact, self-cleaning air fryer comes with an unexpectedly stylish design and many functions—including a rotisserie.
If you don’t want to purchase four appliances, but want to air fry, cook, toast and dehydrate your meals and snacks—this combo machine from CHEFMAN will check all of your boxes. It’s not just attractive on the countertop, but it is highly recommended and reviewed as a reliable, space-saving device.
This basic, yet reliable, air fryer is versatile, simple to use, and easy to store without much fuss.
To test out the air fryer ovens, we sent them to various households in the country. Our testers included families of four, couples and single dwellers. We asked them to review every aspect of their experience, including unboxing, setting up and cooking. We asked each tester to test out a variety of recipes and functions to be able to provide a thorough review of the product itself. To land at the best-of-the-best, we considered many factors, including set-up and use, reliability, cooking features, flavor, expectations, and budget.
I first spoke with Chef Claude Booker, the president of Soul Food Starters, for his advice on selecting the best air fryer for your needs. Here, he provided some shopping tips to narrow down your search:
Are you someone who makes large portions at once or do you cook each night while keeping it simple? Are you looking for a basic air fryer or do you want multiple cooking options? While Booker recommends sticking to the basics for your first purchase, air fryers come in many shapes, sizes and price ranges, so it’s important to determine how you’ll use it before you buy it.
Booker says it’s vital to consider your counter space as this appliance may live on your countertop for an extended time. “A smaller and compact countertop air fryer will achieve the main purpose of creating golden brown and crisp foods,” he says.
Lastly, Booker urges shoppers to review the maker's website and learn the various recipes and items you can cook with the model you want to purchase. This will help you better understand the capabilities.
Booker says an air fryer can be your best friend if you follow these three easy steps:
Starting from cold can cause the item not to crisp up. Instead, the air fryer works like an oven but with top-down radiant heat applied. The same principles of baking apply to the air fryer. Can you fry it without preheating it? Yes, you can— but the tip of preheating provides that fried-in-oil experience. While some machines do offer no preheating time, Booker still recommends giving the machine time to warm up before placing food inside.
Booker explains by spreading out the items, the air circulates properly and causes a better air fry. If the items are touching, they typically stay a bit moist.
If you are looking to bake and at the same time get the extracted juice and deglaze, rendering aluminum foil under the product is a good option. If you want to reduce clean up, aluminum foil placed under the vented tray can prevent juices from sticking to the bottom. However, if you’re going for a super crispy finish, then foil is not needed.
“In the past, it would have been very easy to answer this question because a toaster oven provides radiant heat only, it operated like an oven,” Booker says. “The radiant heat with convection and top and below heat. I have both in my home kitchen, and they all have a place.”
What is an air fryer and what can it do? The better question is, what can’t it do? Even small air fryers that fit easily between your choice of best coffee makers or best espresso machines on your counter, are a great addition to your kitchen. Here, Booker shares his top recommendations for foods to try in the air fryer toaster oven:
Simply load the bagel and you get a perfectly toasted bagel in two minutes. The crumbs and burnt residue that typically come from a toaster is a thing of the past when you toast in the air fryer.
These are brought back to life when using an air fryer. It will crisp up in minutes! Any leftover takeout items like egg rolls, fried fish or fried chicken. This is better than a microwave since a microwave only heats and doesn’t crisp.
Air fryers have top-down radiant heat combined with the air, so it heats the cheese and the bottom crust in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, the oven is a little too slow and does not combine the top-down heat that the compact air fryer gives you, Booker adds.
Booker says with a light spray of your favorite oil, hand-cut French fries will taste like you deep-fried them
The information presented here is created by TIME Stamped and overseen by TIME editorial staff. To learn more, see our About Us page.
