Best Air Fryer Toaster Oven of 2025
Air fryer chicken wings
These chicken wings cooked in the Ninja Air Fryer are gorgeous.
Chicken wings are loved by almost everyone and are a very popular air fried food. The goal of air-fried chicken wings is crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. To test each oven’s air fryer capabilities, I cooked three frozen chicken wings in air fryer mode at 450 degrees F for 30 minutes, flipping every 10 minutes. I let each oven fully preheat before placing the wings in and then taking pictures as soon as I pulled them out. Of course, I tasted them when they were cool enough to eat.
Success here depends on high heat and good fan circulation of hot air, which means faster cooking. The faster the air fryer cooks and the more effective the super convection is, the faster the outside will crisp up and the chicken will be less likely to dry out on the inside.
The Ninja Foodi Oven narrowly won the chicken wing war, with the wings being the crispiest after 30 minutes. They were also very juicy on the inside and had no real visible burn. Cuisinart also finished testing the wings, but I actually had to pull them out after about 25 minutes because they were completely done. They even had some burned skin, but not enough to bother me. The Breville and Crux also performed well, with good browning and crispiness, while the KitchenAid ranked sixth and the Calphalon ranked seventh, but not browned or crispy enough for my taste.
air fryer french fries
Ninja and Breville fried the fries as fast as they could until they were golden brown without burning.
This second air fryer test was designed to showcase the sheer power and speed of a single oven air fryer function, as well as its ability to cook evenly. I placed a handful of frozen French fries (McDonald’s style) in the air fryer at 450 degrees Fahrenheit and timed how quickly each fries reached the golden brown color we all crave. Since fast cooking and convenience are key features of a tabletop air fryer, faster equals better. All oven subjects (except the Cuisinart) eventually reached the desired doneness, but some accomplished the task faster and more consistently than others.
Breville won the frying test with fries that were perfectly golden in six minutes. I set the temperature to a slightly lower temperature (390 F) according to the Ninja’s manual and within eight minutes I had perfect fries (very close to second place, if I had set it to 450 F it might have won or draw). The KitchenAid also takes 8 minutes to reach 450 degrees Fahrenheit, while the Crux takes 9 minutes to reach, and the Calphalon takes 12 minutes. Cuisinart is actually the fastest at only 3 minutes, but it burns the edges of the fries and cooks them unevenly. At this point, I began to suspect that Cuisinart’s air fryer was incredibly powerful, for better or worse.
grilled salmon
The Breville and Ninja were the only ovens that managed to form any crust after four minutes.
To test the performance of the broiler, I brushed a 4-ounce salmon fillet with a mixture of mustard, olive oil, and brown sugar. After the oven was preheated, I placed the salmon under the oven about 2 inches from the top and left it there for four minutes before removing it from the oven to take the photo.
The key I’m looking for here is how well each broiler channels the caramelized crust on top of the fish. Some ovens, like the Calphalon and Cuisinart, showed little sign of browning, while the Ninja and Breville delivered beautiful color and a good crust. I decided they would share the blue ribbon for this test. KitchenAid and Crux both showed some browning, ranking third and fourth respectively.
plain old toast
Both Calphalon and Ninja produced very nice toast, matching their medium presets, but the Ninja (pictured) did it in half the time.
This test is to see how accurate the toaster presets are for a specific oven and how fast they bake. I put a slice of bread in each toaster and set it to medium. I didn’t take this test as seriously as the others because the truth is, any of these ovens will get you to the roast you want, it just might take more (or less) time, some tinkering, or learning presets to get it to you Whatever you want.
Each oven’s preset “medium” cooking time varies widely, from more than six minutes on the Calphalon to three and a half minutes on the Ninja. In fact, the two produced the most even and attractive toast corresponding to the preset, but Ninja (the winner) finished it in half the time. The Breville, KitchenAid, and Crux barely toast the bread when set to medium, which just means you have to use a darker setting, while the Cuisinart over-toasts the bread.
bake cookies
Ninja and Breville tied in the cookie contest, with both ovens producing near-perfect results.
Next, I wanted to see how accurately and consistently each oven could reach and maintain temperature, and baking cookies was the perfect test. I place a tablespoon of Toll House cookie dough on parchment paper and stick one in each oven on the middle rack, following the recommended time and temperature (350 degrees F, 10 minutes).
The cookie contest was a photo contest between Ninja and Breville, both of whom achieved near-perfect results. The Cuisinart cookies and Crux cookies were both overbaked (albeit only slightly), while the KitchenAid cookies were a bit underbaked.
Warm-up test
Another big attraction of using a countertop oven over a larger oven is how quickly it preheats. While the cookies were baking, I timed each oven to see how quickly it reached 350 F.
The Ninja Foodi blows away everything else with its lightning-fast 50-second preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Most others had a time of about three and a half minutes, while the larger Breville took five minutes to reach provisional status. I didn’t do a formal test of air fryer preheating, but I did notice that the Calphalon took significantly longer to reach 450 F in the air fryer than other products.
Temperature accuracy and consistency testing
This is one of the most important features for any oven, especially if you plan to do some light baking in it. If your oven doesn’t maintain an accurate and consistent temperature, it becomes more difficult to follow recipes, and you’ll be forever tweaking and fussing with your food to make sure it doesn’t burn. I used a thermocouple to read the internal temperature of the oven while baking at 350 F for 10 minutes. I was able to get an average temperature reading during the roast, but I also watched the thermometer in real time to see how it fluctuated quite a bit during the cooking process.
The KitchenAid won this test, with an average reading of 350 F on the nose, with very little fluctuation. Ninja (average temperature 343 degrees Fahrenheit), Cuisinart (346 degrees Fahrenheit) and Breville (345 degrees Fahrenheit) also performed well, although Breville started very hot and then dropped off. The bottom two are the Crux, which runs warmer (365 degrees Fahrenheit), and the Calpahlon, which runs cooler (337 degrees Fahrenheit). The two were also the most inconsistent throughout the roasting process.
Cleaning and care
Smart design features give you direct access to the inside of your Ninja oven for a good cleaning.
Aside from the ninjas (more on that later), there’s nothing particularly unusual about maintaining or cleaning these ovens. They have standard box interiors in various sizes made of stainless steel that require regular scrubbing and wiping. Each oven also comes with a removable, dishwasher-safe crumb tray to catch fallen chips and toast.
Now back to Ninja. Due to its compact interior, this oven is definitely more prone to splatters and stains, especially when making foods with fat and grease like chicken wings. Thankfully, there’s a clever design feature that allows the entire base of the Ninja oven to fold up, allowing you to get right into the interior with a rag or Brillo pad and wipe it clean. I’m sure ninjas need more frequent cleaning than other ninjas. If this isn’t something you’re diligent about, it’s certainly something worth considering.
