What gadget should replace our toaster oven?

January 10, 2022 7:30 PM

Our toaster oven is dead. Should I replace it with a multi-function countertop appliance? If so, what?

I have a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity to upgrade our toaster oven. I have vaguely heard of new-fangled things like air fryers and rotisseries but don't know what's actually useful, or really what they even do. But I do like gadgets, for example I use my instant pot (which doesn't have an air fryer lid) multiple times a week. For completeness, I also already have a microwave.

Aside from the requirement of "making toast," what cool devices are out there that can live on my countertop and help me make yummy things? Any recommendations?

posted by rouftop to Food & Drink (21 answers total)

Best answer: I think the usual suggestion is something like a Breville (one example which does air frying, lower key example which does not) which is a toaster oven that can also really bake things, and has a large capacity than the usual toaster oven but also doesn't have a huge footprint. I replaced a toaster oven with one and I've been pleased with it.
posted by jessamyn at 7:41 PM on January 10, 2022 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Seconding the Breville. We have the lower-key example linked above and use it for all our oven needs. I make very fancy loves of bread, roast chicken, muffins, cookies, it's great.
posted by 10ch at 7:46 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Thirding the Breville. I'm not sure what the newest model is, but I splurged on my Breville toaster oven 8 years ago and am so glad I did. It's still going strong, give or take a noisy convection fan. Easily my most beloved appliance, hands down. The day it dies is the day I buy my next one.
posted by cgg at 7:52 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

I followed the Wirecutter's advice and got the Cuisinart Chef's Convection Toaster Oven. It's been fantastic. Air fries, toasts, bakes, roasts, does pretty much everything a normal oven would do (plus air frying) while sitting on a counter.

Extremely happy with this choice.
posted by blob at 7:59 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

I got this thing last year and I use it darn near daily. I use it for everything from warming up muffins to roasting small trays of veggies to putting a tray of nachos under the broiler to air-frying stuff to baking cornbread.

I love this thing. I literally have not used my oven since I got this thing, and I'm a little annoyed by that.
posted by erst at 8:01 PM on January 10, 2022

If I can piggyback: what's the advantage in baking in a toaster oven if you already have an oven? Is it cheaper to run?
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:02 PM on January 10, 2022

Best answer: Preheats a lot more quickly, less mess to clean up if something's messy. The Breville I have (the low-end one) has some nice little timers and stuff that my oven doesn't have. If you have a more modern oven the difference may not be as obvious but yes it does use slightly less electricity and I've found it heats up my kitchen less, so better in the summer if I'm baking.
posted by jessamyn at 8:12 PM on January 10, 2022 [3 favorites]

Breville, Cuisinart, or if you want to get super fancy and also replace a sous vide circulator and steam oven (and have the space for it), Anova Precision Oven.
posted by supercres at 8:15 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

I followed the Wirecutter's advice and got the Cuisinart Chef's Convection Toaster Oven.

Same here - though the price was a shocker initially, it has been very worth it. Most of the functions don't require a preheat and it is a good size for two people. I am happy to have two more sheet pans that fit inside of it, in addition to the two that come with it.
posted by soelo at 8:28 PM on January 10, 2022

Response by poster: The counter space I have is only 20" in length and abuts the stove. Can one of these fancy ovens live close to burners? I suspect I need to find something narrower.
posted by rouftop at 9:06 PM on January 10, 2022

My Cuisinart is about 12 inches from the burners and is 19 inches wide. I'd be okay with having it about 4 inches away from a burner. The sides are metal and get pretty hot when the oven itself is on, so I think it would be okay. However, the controls are on the right side, and I would be concerned about having them that close to the flame. Maybe 6 inches? I guess I would look for something like 15 inches wide, since your burners don't heat the out to the edge of the stovetop.
posted by soelo at 9:14 PM on January 10, 2022

One consideration with the bigger fancier countertop ovens is how much power they draw and how that works with your kitchen wiring. An 1800-watt device like the Cuisinart is going to pull 15 amps, which has the potential to trip a breaker if you have older wiring, especially if you try to use something else on the same circuit.
posted by holgate at 10:00 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

We're happy with this Ninja Foodi we got at Costco. I've yet to master the Air-Fry capabilities but since its footprint is deeper, nearly square, it can accommodate a whole frozen pizza, which is nice.
posted by Rash at 10:38 PM on January 10, 2022

Can one of these fancy ovens live close to burners?

Once the oven is tucked in place, slide a wooden cutting board on its edge between toaster oven and cooktop burners to protect the oven sides.
posted by Thella at 11:58 PM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

Compared to a standard old toaster oven, just about any convection toaster oven will be a vast improvement. Locating it next to the stove is fine.

When my ancient toaster oven died, I read reviews and went to the stores to look at the things so Icould get a feel for them. Less fussy is better in my opinion because you'll probably never use those extra functions. My budget didn't allow for a Breville.

The only thing that I do not like about the one I selected is that the knobs are silver with black writing that's hard to read until one becomes accustomed to the locations of various functions.

In the summer, I never use the conventional oven. So, now I can actually bake things with this because it doesn't heat up the house.
posted by mightshould at 3:35 AM on January 11, 2022

We treated ourselves to a Breville when we moved into our new house and generally love it for everything, except toast. Toast takes a long frigging time! So we kept the toaster too, which somewhat defeats the purpose of 'one to replace all'. The dehydrator has become my favorite feature.

I also want to echo holgate's comment about the power draw; we live in an old house and discovered we can't run the Breville and the microwave at the same time (and also blew a fuse using it while the Christmas tree was lit), so we currently have it on a very long extension cord into another room / circuit and plan to have the electrician out soon to manage the load.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 4:18 AM on January 11, 2022

I had a pretty cheap toaster oven that I used at least a couple of times a week. I got the fancy cuisinart linked by Erst from a friend who was moving. The air fryer setting was nice I guess, but the applicable was just so much larger than the little toaster oven that when we moved we actually got rid of the fancy one and brought our old one back (that had been in my parents garage). Also the fancy one would trip our breaker if we also ran the electric kettle at the same time. My sister loves her dedicated air fryer though, so maybe there’s improvement in a dedicated device.
posted by raccoon409 at 4:59 AM on January 11, 2022

Used the Wirecutter reco to give a Christmas gift to my father several years ago and he still comments to this day about how great it is.
posted by mmascolino at 6:23 AM on January 11, 2022

Say what you want about your Cuisinarts and your Brevilles, but the shiznit is definitely the Anova Precision Oven. It is essentially a countertop combo oven allowing the user to do a huge number of cool and interesting things from sous vide-like low-slow moist cooking to reverse sear poultry and meats to bread baking to all the usual toaster oven things. From what my friends tell me, a popular aftermarket add on is the Roto Tisserie windup rotisserie that is just the right size to fit inside and has been producing spectacular results together with the APO. I'll definitely be getting one of these at some point in the future.
posted by slkinsey at 8:57 AM on January 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

I had a breville bought used and loved it. But it died on me and replacing the controls is not DIY on Breville oven.

SO ended up getting Toshiba AIr Fryer Toaster Oven. It has 13 functions including air fryer, reheat, proofing etc along with regular toaster oven items. I use it almost everyday and almost stopped using larger oven. We only used the larger oven during thanksgiving for capacity, even then used the toaster oven to bake desserts at the same time.

Retial is 180 but I got it amazon warehouse for around $60
posted by radsqd at 11:28 AM on January 11, 2022

Response by poster: Oh, I was so ready to go for that Anova Precision Oven. It looks amazing. But my spouse ix-nayed it because the only way to use it for toast was to use an app, plus it doesn't have a "turn off automatically when program is finished" setting, so you can't just wake up, throw some slices of bread in, press a button and get toast out. If our kitchen were bigger I'd get that and a new small toaster oven, but we really only have one spot left so I ordered a Breville. (I moved some other stuff on our counters around so there's room for it now.)
posted by rouftop at 9:30 AM on January 18, 2022 [2 favorites]