Once started, the air fryer enters preheat mode for 3 to 4 minutes, at which point it beeps at you to add food. I found preheating unnecessary — I put the food in and started cooking right away, subtracting 3 minutes from my cooking time since the timer doesn’t count down until after the unit preheats. Emitting a cheerful jingle, the air fryer indicated a few minutes before the end of the cooking cycle that it was time to give the basked a shake, which I dutifully obeyed. Once the time had elapsed, the air fryer automatically switched off – and I was greeted with perfectly crisp and fluffy fries cooked just to my liking, alongside a moist, flavorful fillet of salmon. Having mostly tested larger air fryers, and as a single-person household, in particular, I was delighted to have the Instant Vortex Slim at my disposal.
Instant also recommends starting with conventional oven directions on food packages as a guide for temperature and time, not directions for deep frying. Of course, that will depend on what you’re cooking, and therein lies my biggest issue with this machine. The manual provided in the box includes a small table of recommended times for a few foods, but for most, you’ll have to go through some trial and error to get a good result. I’m not a fan of wasting time or food, and I wish the directions were clearer on this front.
That way, you can lay your food in a single layer and avoid overcrowding, resulting in that signature crisp, evenly cooked texture. I’ve spent more than a decade covering lifestyle, news, and policy. When I’m not putting pen to paper, I’m exploring new cultures through travel and taking on home makeover projects, one room at a time. I used the moosoo air fryer Slim for two weeks, cooking various meals from breakfast through to dinner, as well as a few tasty treats, to test its limits and performance. I tried official Instant Pot recipes and cooking timelines, but also experimented using my own instincts to see how adaptable the Instant Pot is in use. Unlike its siblings, the Instant Vortex Slim doesn’t have a ClearCook window through which you can watch your food cook.
Truthfully, we’ve never contacted Instant™ support for this air fryer because it has not given us issues. There are a few things that we have found didn’t work out as well in the air fryer – or at least in this air fryer. We also made a frozen chicken breast and it turned out the same, just with slightly longer cooking time. Some – like this 8-quart Vortex® – have dual-zone, meaning you can cook two different things in different temperature zones for different times. With a larger capacity, this might be ideal for a larger family than ours (two people). This means that we might miss the commands of the air fryer but we are attentive people when we air fry so this has never been an issue.
The air fry preset mode suggests 190°C for 20 minutes, but we took this down to 10 minutes in line with the recipe suggestion and pressed start. Inside the box you’ll find a cooking tray that sits neatly inside the non-stick cooking drawer. This ensures your food is slightly raised from the base so any grease can drain. While there isn’t the biggest gap between the tray and base of the drawer, it did create some space for the excess oil to pool while cooking. At 5.15kg (11lb 6oz), we found the Instant Vortex Plus easy to lift out of the box and place on the worktop.
If you use it once a week, its essentially a net cost of less than $2 a week for the whole year. Although they took an extra three minutes to cook, the consistency of these chicken strips was definitely worth the wait. We consider legibility of markings and ease of setting desired time and temperature. We really noticed the benefits of its “EvenCrisp” technology here too, as our chips came out crunchy and perfectly cooked. Just share the link, credit and link back to this copyrighted article.
There are many all-in-one-type air fryers on the market today that can toast, bake, roast, dehydrate, and more. If those added functions can replace another small appliance in your kitchen, it may be worth additional cost. When it comes to air fryers, there are basic models and ones with all the bells and whistles, but a fancy one won’t do you any good if its complicated interface detracts from its convenience. Many have preset programs that allow you to whip up a batch of fries, bake cornbread, or roast veggies with one touch of a button. There are also analog and digital models to choose from as well as models with smart functions and access to an app full of recipes.
Thanks to the dedicated reheat function, it’s a great way to bring soggy leftovers back to life, by giving them a crunchy, crispy exterior. It’s large enough instant vortex to fit an entire chicken, so it’s an easy way to cook an entire dinner. Thanks to the nonstick surface, this air fryer is ideal for baking, too.