Here’s how it held up against a number of the best air fryers on the market. We’ve used this air fryer for 180+ published recipes – from fresh items to frozen foods – on this website. It’s instant vortex small but powerful – the basket size is perfect for two (or more) people. With this air fryer, you’ll enjoy seven built-in smart programs that include bake, rotisserie, broil and roast.
When cooked well the bacon should be crisp and the fat should be rendered, leaving a lot of fat at the base of the air fryer basket. After air frying the chicken for 15 minutes, we found the insides to be suitably tender and the exterior noticeably crunchier than the results given by some air fryers we’ve tried. A great all-rounder, the instant vortex Plus gives you the option to air fry, roast, grill, bake, reheat and dehydrate. We love its very specific variable temperature dial that ranges from 49°C to 205°C ( 120°F to 401°F) to suit your food. Meanwhile, its illuminated ClearCook window allows you to monitor your food without disrupting the cooking cycle.
Its easy-to-use interface makes it easy to roast potatoes and air fry chicken at the same time (and have them ready at the same time, thanks to the SyncFinish feature). But overall, this machine worked effortlessly at roasting, crisping, and heating food. My favorite feature of the Instant Vortex Plus is the window in the basket.
I gave it a go with a popular online recipe, 2 pounds of thinly sliced top round beef and a tasty marinade. Set at 155 for 3 hours, I filled two trays with the marinated meat. Once the 3 hours were up, I set the Vortex Plus to bake at 275 and cooked the jerky for 10 minutes to ensure food safety. This combination air fryer dreams big and gets a lot of things right, but it’s not without its flaws, and my testing experience left me hoping Instant will make improvements and rerelease it.
Ninja 4qt is still an excellent air fryer… we just prefer Vortex® head-to-head. Combination recipes in the air fryer are great because you can create dinner dishes quickly and efficiently with very little overall prep. Cooking fresh chicken breast in the air fryer turned out really, really well.
Of all the air fryers we tested, this is one of the most intuitive air fryers to program. The buttons are nicely sized, clearly marked, and quick to respond. To program the temperature and time, you turn and press a dial. The basket has a rack on which the food rests and is easy to pull out and reposition in the air fryer. The display is large and easy to read and the digital controls are intuitive to use. Like other Instant Vortex models, you won’t require much oil when cooking in the Slim air fryer.
The control panel slopes towards you, which makes it well-suited to under-cabinet use. It is glossy and quite minimal when switched off, but throughout testing we did find that it marked very easily with greasy fingertips. During her 20+ years as a lifestyle journalist, Emily has held inhouse positions as features editor at Ideal Home and a features writer at the BBC. A freelancer for Saga, she regularly writes for publications including Livingetc, GQ, Ideal Home, The Telegraph, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar and Wired to name a few. She covers everything from design and interiors, gardens and food, to fitness and health.