Love crispy bacon but hate the grease mess? Love leftover pizza but hate how soggy it gets in the microwave? Want to make treats fast without turning on your oven?
If the answer to any of these is yes then you NEED an air fryer! If you answered no, you probably still need an air fryer and just don’t know it yet.
Read on for my review of the Cuisinart TOA-60 air fryer and find out why you should get one asap!
This post is NOT sponsored by Cuisinart, I just really love my air fryer. However, this post does contain affiliate links and if you make a purchase after clicking one of my links I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Why an air fryer?
An air fryer is a quicker, and healthier way to fry foods. You can get all the deliciousness without dealing with messy oil splatters and without adding all those extra calories.
Don’t worry, the food can still taste delicious!
Air Fryer vs. Air Fryer Toaster Oven
The first time I encountered an air fryer was at a Christmas party. The hosts made Filet Minion in an air fryer! My husband and I were amazed! He immediately starting proclaiming our need for one of our own.
I was speculative but finally agreed so long as it could also toast things as we did not have space for one more appliance and we used our toaster frequently.
That’s how we decided on an air fryer like the Cuisinart TOA-60. We ordered it off Amazon and we’ve been in love with it ever since.
Why the Cuisinart TOA-60 Air Fryer?
The Cuisinart TOA-60 is an air fryer, convection oven, and toaster all in one! It actually has 7 functions:
- Warm
- Broil
- Convection Broil
- Toast
- Bake
- Convection Bake
- Air Fry
It has 4 dials along the front. The first is a timer for non-toast settings. The second allows you to set a temperature. The third is where you select the function. And the final dial is for setting the time for the toast function.
If you ever set your toast timer and wonder why nothing is happening it’s probably not broken, you probably don’t have the function dial turned to toast. (I do this entirely too often.)
Accessories
This air fryer comes with three accessories. One metal baking tray, a frying basket, and a slotted metal rack for toasting. The baking tray does tend to turn black after being used a few times and it’s not that easy to clean. I often cover ours with aluminum foil.
Size
This Cuisinart air fryer will take up a bit of counter space. There are smaller versions that do only air frying and there is even a compact Cuisinart air fryer I’ll talk about briefly later.
There are also larger ones that are meant to essentially replace your oven altogether, but we certainly couldn’t fit anything larger than this one on our counter.
The actual dimensions are 14″ tall, 16″ wide, and a depth of 15.5″.
It fits a large amount of food for being so small. You can actually fit an entire pizza in there. The fry basket can hold enough chicken strips for 3-4 people and can even fit 3-4 chicken breasts or pork chops. It’s got plenty of space to easily feed a family of 2 adults. It works great for our family of 2 adults and two young kids.
Reliability
We’ve had our air fryer for well over a year with no issues other than it will trip a breaker if we try to run an air fryer, instant pot, and the microwave all at one time.
At the time of this review there were over 4,500 reviews on Amazon and it has 4.4 stars, pretty darn good.
How does it cook?
This air fryer cooks quickly and well. You definitely have to keep an eye on your food as things cook much faster than in an oven and can go from tasty to burnt quite quickly, especially using the airy fryer setting!
Just like when you broil something you want to watch it. Eventually, you’ll learn the proper timing for different items and won’t have to stay so close.
What can you make in air fryer?
What can’t you make in an air fryer?! Ok, so you can’t make foods that have extremely wet batters. But, you can make tons of other stuff. Here are a few examples.
Bacon
My husband regularly makes bacon in our air fryer. It comes out crispy in about 8 minutes.
Pizza
This is hands down the best way to re-heat leftover pizza. Pop it in and it’s ready in a couple minutes without getting doughy like often happens with the microwave.
Better yet, you can actual cook an entire pizza in this Cuisinart air fryer! We’ve only tested it with Digiorno pizzas so if they’re larger you’ll have to test it for yourself.
Your pizza will be done quickly, no waiting for the oven to preheat, and you won’t have to turn the oven on during a hot summer day!
Frozen Foods
Many frozen foods that would typically be warmed in an oven or microwave can be cooked in the air fryer. We regulary make chicken strips, fries, pizza rolls, & fish sticks in our air fryer.
This is a super win for moms. No more waiting to heat the oven up to cook 4 fish sticks for my kids all while they dance around complaining of hunger. They’re done in the air fryer in less than 8 minutes!
Cookies
Yes, you can actually bake a small batch of cookies since the Cuisinart TOA-60 is also a toaster oven. Bake up some frozen dough and you’ll have warm cookies to serve with a glass of milk for dessert.
Lightly Battered foods
An air fryer isn’t just for making snack foods. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article my first encounter with an air fryer was someone using it for filet minion.
We don’t make much steak at our house but I do regularly use it to cook breaded pork chops and chicken parmesan. These are lightly breaded and a fairly dry breading and they cook up crispy and delicious. Again, no waiting for the oven to preheat, just pop them in and they’re ready in around 20 minutes.
Other Options (more air fryers)
More compact
There is a smaller, more compact version of this, the Cuisinart TOA-28. However, many reviews mention that it’s just too small to actually cook much of anything.
More high-tech
There are also larger, more high-tech air fryers that can completely replace your oven if you don’t cook large quantities.
One such fryer is the Breville Smart Oven Air. This thing has a dehydrated function and from a review you can apparently roast a chicken in there! But it does cost almost twice as much as the Cuisinart TOA-60.
No Toast Function
If you don’t use a toaster or have plenty of space for appliances you could also consider one of the more traditional basket air fryers. This Dash Air Fryer will cook a lot and has great reviews. It also comes in multiple sizes, but it doesn’t operate as a toaster.
The Cuisinart Air Fryer TOA-60 truly is a great choice if you’re looking for an air fryer that can also replace your toaster. It has a wide variety of functions and is decently sized. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family has.
FAQ section
Yes! The Cuisinart air fryer is a great choice. It also has great reviews from users. Read above for my full review with all the details.
Yes! Food cooks more quickly than in a regular oven and you can avoid messy oil that is full of calories.
So many things! Bacon, Pizza, Breaded vegetables, fries, chicken strips, breaded meats (even raw meats), cookies, frozen snack foods, & more.
