The Instant Pot That Air Fries
This Instant Pot Air Fryer combo uses minimal cooking oil or fat so you can enjoy healthy air fried foods at home. It minimizes unhealthy fats, including saturated and trans fats, while keeping essential nutrients intact Instant Pot Air Fryer Crisp features a variety of new cooking functions steam, pressure cooking, slow cook, vacuum low temperature cooking method, dehydrate, bake, roast, sauté , air fry, grill.
Cooking A Whole Roast Chicken Using The Pressure Cooker & Air Fryer Functions
I could not ignore the fact that this machine had something else to offer. I really wanted to know how I could employ two different functions in one recipe to achieve desirable results, in order to prove that this machine was worthy of the counter space it occupied.
I decided to put this to the test with one of my all-time favorite meals – roast chicken. I set out to make this dish in one pot with two functions. I was after a bird with juicy white meat and a crisp skin – something I feel I have perfected in my conventional oven. After consulting the Instant Pot Time Table that accompanied this cooker, I knew that I could cook a 4-pound chicken in about 30 minutes . I adjusted this time slightly because I intended to use the air fry function to finish this chicken off with golden brown skin.
I seasoned the chicken generously with salt and pepper, stuffed the cavity with garlic and lemon, trussed it with butcher’s twine, and nestled it into the wire rack that I lowered into the inner pot, along with a cup of water. I set the timer for 25 minutes.
I could not ignore the delicious, golden, aromatic liquid that had been left behind from the pressure cooking stage, so I quickly put that right back into the pot with an equal amount of jasmine rice that I had rinsed under water.
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The 4.7-star-rated Cosori air fryer is a No. 1 Amazon bestseller — and incredibly popular with CBS Essentials readers, too. Right now, you can get one for $80 after coupon, a better price than we’ve seen for the same model on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The bestselling Cosori air fryer features nine different cooking functions that prepare your food at the best temperature and time for the most crisp and crunch. According to the brand, the 5-quart basket is the right size to make two chicken breasts or up to 2 pounds of French fries. The non-stick air fryer basket is removable and dishwasher safe. The top-rated air fryer heats up to 450ºF.
“I’ve used it several times already to cook wings, fish, shrimp, and I even cooked a New York strip in it,” says one Amazon reviewer about this compact, space-saving Cosori air fryer. “The steak was evenly cooked to a perfect medium well temp, just the way I like it. It was juicy, had a little char on the edges, tender and delicious.”
Plus, they note, “cleaning is a breeze. No, seriously, you cannot get any better than this.”
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How Easy Is It To Clean
The Instant Pot Duo Crisp, with all of its bells and whistles, has a number of parts that require cleaning. This machine boasts a stainless steel inner pot, making it a candidate for washing by hand or using the dishwasher. Because I didn’t have to worry about a nonstick surface, I was free to use an abrasive sponge if necessary. After just one use, the pot did not have quite the same luster and shine, but I felt it was quite easy to clean, much like the rest of my stainless steel cookware.
The air fryer basket, however, required a bit more care because of its nonstick coating. It did clean up with some effort, but using an abrasive would be a mistake here. There were bits of food stuck to the basket, so letting it soak with some hot water and dish soap certainly loosened them. Alternatively, you can try cleaning it in the dishwasher. I will say that this fryer basket was not as easy to clean as the Cosori fryer basket that I recently tested, but it was manageable.
The air fryer lid should never be submerged in water, so cleanup requires a bit more care. The heating coil is coated in a non-stick surface which makes most of the cleanup quite simple with a damp kitchen towel or sponge. The outside of the lid cleans up well with a kitchen spray.
Why Did I Get A Burn Notice On The Duo Crisp With Ultimate Lid
Since the Instant Pot Duo Crisp with Ultimate Lid cooks at 1500W, it runs hotter than the more traditional 1000W Instant Pot models. Since most Instant Pot recipes are developed for these more common, traditional models, in rare occasions the higher heat will trigger the Burn Notice.
When the Instant Pot Duo Crisp with Ultimate Lid reads FOOD BURN, the first things to check are:
- Does the inner pot have enough liquid?
- Are any food deposits stuck to the bottom of the inner pot?
If youve gotten the burn notice, remove the inner cooking pot from the base. Check for debris inside the pressure cooker housing or on the outside of the stainless steel cooking pot.
Then check the cooking pot.
If just a little food has burned onto the bottom of the cooking pot, scoop the food into a separate bowl and scrape the burned parts away. Return the food to the cooking pot. At this point, you can add more liquid to the pressure cooking pot and try another pressure cooking cycle. Or you can transfer the pot to the stove or oven and stir while you finish cooking.
If a lot of food has burned on, youll be able to taste the burnt taste throughout and, unfortunately, you may have to discard the meal. Soak and scrub off the burned foods. Barkeepers friend is a useful cleaner to help remove stubborn stains.
In the future, be sure to add more liquid to the pot and avoid ingredients containing thickeners like canned soups or prepackaged spaghetti sauces.
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The Duo Crisp With Ultimate Lid User Manual
Like other Instant Pot models released in the last few years, the user manual for the Duo Crisp with Ultimate Lid is incredibly thorough.
The instructions for pressure cooking and air frying, as well as the other functions, walk you through the basic steps of the process.
See the following pages in the Instant Pot Duo Crisp with Ultimate Lid user manual for detailed instructions:
- Pressure Cook + Steam: page 20
What Comes With The Duo Crisp With Ultimate Lid
The Ultimate Lid Duo Crisp comes with only one accessory: an Air Fry/Cooking Rack. This rack is meant to be reversible. Use the tall side up for air frying, pressure cooking, and steaming. The shorter side up is meant for broiling and dehydrating.
It does not come with a spare silicone ring, since the ring is non-removable. It also does not come with the air fry basket that is standard with the traditional Duo Crisp, which is too tall to use in this model.
In practice, however, the single-level air fry/cooking rack doesnt hold as much as the crisper basket.
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What We Like About The Instant Pot Duo Crisp
The Duo Crisp fundamentally works as both a pressure cooker and an air fryer, and its genuinely useful for making one-pot meals. It can pressure cook a whole chicken until tender and then brown the skin afterward, or heat up a small batch of frozen fries faster than an oven. And its better designed than the one other pressure cooker/air fryer weve tested, the Ninja Foodi .
After pressure cooking a whole chicken atop a bed of carrots and potatoes in the Duo Crisp, we were able to brown the exposed skin in seven minutes using the air-fryer lid on the Roast setting. Compared with chickens weve cooked in other air fryers, this chicken browned much more evenly, although it wasnt as deeply golden as chicken roasted in an oven or a convection toaster oven. The meat was succulent, while the vegetables underneath turned out tender and even caramelized in places, if a little overcooked. The result wasnt quite as good as traditional French chicken in a pot, which would be more flavorful after a longer cooking time and gentler reduction. But wed gladly eat this comforting one-pot meal again.
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The Air Fryer Function
I was a little worried that the Instant Pot wouldnt be able to circulate air as well as a traditional air fryer, but was pleasantly surprised by the result! So far Ive used it to make fries, chicken wings, crispy chicken thighs, home fries, chicken nuggets, and carnitas with great success. I also like that it is built to tell you when to flip your food for even cooking.
One word of caution with the air fryer function I find it to be a little bit less powerful than a traditional air fryer, so when Im following air fryer recipes I typically add on another 5 or so minutes to achieve the perfect crisp!
How I Tested The Instant Pot Air Fryers
To see how the air fryers compared to one another, I headed to Trader Joes and went straight to the freezer aisle. I grabbed bags of frozen french fries, orange chicken, and cauliflower gnocchi. Frozen food created a level playing field plus, if any of the air fryers didnt work well for frozen fries, that would be a huge strike against them. I tested the fries first, then the chicken, and, lastly, the cauliflower gnocchi air-frying everything according to the package instructions. I also evaluated how easy the air fryers were to use and clean, and if there were any other glaring differences, like if one was much louder than the others. Heres what I found out.
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Instant Vortex Pro 10 Quart Air Fryer Rotisserie And Convection Oven Air Fry Roast Broil Bake Toast Reheat And Dehydrate 1500w Stainless Steel And Black
- 9-IN-1 FUNCTIONALITY: Air fry, bake, broil, dehydrate, roast, proof, toast, reheat and rotisserie.
- ONE-TOUCH SMART PROGRAMS: Customizable cooking programs for easy chicken wings, roasted veggies, cinnamon buns and more.
- EVENCRISP TECHNOLOGY: Delivering all the crunch and tenderness of deep-frying with 95% less oil.
- SEE YOUR FOOD COOK: The glass panel on the oven door takes out the guess work out of air frying and cooking.
- VERSATILE COUNTERTOP AIR FRYER TOASTER OVEN: Cook perfect rotisserie oven meals or proof dough, bake and toast all in one place.
- FAST PREHEATING: Little to no preheating time.
- ADJUSTABLE TEMPERATURE: Easily select temperatures from 95 to 400° F.
- PERFECT SIZE: Holds enough food for growing families, preparing side dishes and appetizers.
- PROVEN SAFETY FEATURES: Built-in safety features including Overheat Protection and auto-off.
- INCLUDED ACCESSORIES: Rotisserie basket, rotisserie lift, rotisserie spit, rotisserie forks, drip tray, perforated pans
How It Performs As An Air Fryer
I cooked several of my favorite air fryer foods with the Duo Crisp and its Ultimate Lid. The air fryer was plenty proficient once it got heated. Speaking of which, this is one of the only air fryers Ive used that needed an official preheat time. For an air frying session at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, it took about five minutes to preheat plus the actual cook time. Im used to air fryers that dont need preheating, so it took getting used to.
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Ability To Pressure Cook Then Brown
For me, one of the downsides of the Instant Pot is that food can come out a little mushy at the end. I am loving the ability to pressure cook something, like chicken thighs or carnitas, then switch to broil or air fry mode to crisp. I made some of the best chicken wings of my life a few weeks ago combining the pressure cook + air fry functions!
The Air Fryer Basket Wore Out Quickly
After a few uses, I started having trouble with the air fryer basket that is included with the pot. The non-stick coating started to wear down quickly, leaving me with fries and chicken that were sticking to the bottom. To work around this, I purchased some perforated parchment paper inserts, and theyve made ALL the difference!
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How Would I Improve The Instant Pot Duo Crisp Air Fryer
Testing this machine was a lot of fun, and I was quite surprised by its range of applications in the home kitchen. For my family of four, it is a great size for pressure cooking. I feel confident that I would use it for many future meals. However, I am reluctant to say that I would use the air fryer function on its own, due to the limited cooking surface. I would prefer to have a larger air fryer basket that was not as deep, but a bit wider.
Another design flaw is the length of the electrical cord. I found this really limited where I was able to use this rather large appliance. The manual suggests that this is short cord is designed for safety, in order to prevent entanglement or tripping, which left me very little room for maneuvering it around my countertop. In the end, I had to relocate my coffee maker to accommodate this machine, which was fine in the short term but could be a problem for some kitchens with limited outlets and space.
You Cant Fit Much In The Air Fryer Basket
To be fair, this is my complaint with most air fryers, but there are some air fryers and toaster ovens with air fry capabilities that can fit larger amounts. We are a family of 2, so it works ok for us for most applications, but if you are a family of 4 or more, or enjoy making large portions for leftovers, youll have to cook your food in multiple batches which is a pain really defeats the purpose of air frying!
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I Tried The Instant Pot With Built
This first-ever Instant Pot with a built-in air fryer lid will save some space in your kitchen. But is it any good?
David Watsky
Senior Editor / Home and Kitchen
David lives in Brooklyn where he’s logged more than a decade writing about all things edible, including meal kits and meal delivery subscriptions, cooking, kitchen gear and commerce. Since earning a BA in English from Northeastern in Boston, he’s toiled in nearly every aspect of the eats business from slicing and dicing as a sous-chef in Rhode Island to leading complex marketing campaigns for major food brands in Manhattan. These days, he’s likely somewhere trying the latest this or tasting the latest that – and reporting back, of course. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week.
Cooking Wings With The Air Fryer Function
The first thing I wanted to test with the Instant Pot Duo Crisp was its air fryer capabilities. I was already familiar with the name Instant Pot, but the air fryer seemed like new technology for this established brand in pressure cookers, and I wondered if this function was reason enough to have purchased this machine.
The true test for my family would be in its ability to cook and properly crisp chicken wings. I really did not want to try anything too complicated for my inaugural run, so I prepared them the same way I had in the past when I recently tested the Cosori Air Fryer.
First of all, I made sure to dry the wings well with paper towels. I know that dry food simply fries better, because having added moisture on the skin just causes them to steam. I took this to the next level with a dusting of baking powder, which contributes to browning through the Maillard reaction. I seasoned them well with kosher salt and garlic powder to make these wings extra tasty.
The fryer basket of this machine is round and quite deep. Unfortunately, this does not provide a very large cooking surface which is optimal for air frying.
I moved ahead, placed the hefty air fryer lid into position, and selected the air fryer function on the display.
I set the temperature to 400 degrees, the timer to 20 minutes, and waited, checking them once halfway through. At the 20 minute mark, they were definitely testing done with a probe thermometer.
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