The real irony is that part of the convenience of air fryers is that they’re small. But larger air fryers offer more surface area for your food to spread out, and therefore get crispy—which is pretty much the point of an air fryer.
If you’re cooking for larger groups, opt for either a toaster oven–air fryer or an XL (or XXL) basket model. Here are our top picks for both styles.
The best combo air fryer–toaster ovens
If counter space isn’t an issue and you’re seeking something that can essentially do everything your full-size oven can do and more, go for a large air fryer–toaster oven combo. Breville makes three of our top picks. While they’re all large, they range in size—from the Smart Oven Air Fryer that can fit six slices of toast and a whole chicken to the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, which can fit nine slices of toast and a 14-pound turkey.
As mentioned, this is an all-in-one air fryer and regular toaster oven, so if you’d like to make crispy sesame-coconut chicken tenders and cook a whole bird in the same appliance, this is one to consider.
The control panel has a variety of presets for specific foods like frozen pizza, bagels, and cookies, or you can choose cook modes like reheat, broil, bake, or roast. The air fry mode activates the “super convection” fan setting, which hits your sweet potato wedges with rapidly circulating air. The Breville is considerably roomy and front-loading, making it easy to cook large items. And the window means you can watch food as it cooks so you don’t have to open the oven to check that dinner isn’t burning, letting precious heat out in the process.
The downside of this one is that it takes up a lot of space—but again, air fryers work by allowing hot air to circulate rapidly, and the more contact that hot air has with the surface of your food, the crispier it will get. Crowding is not conducive to crisping.
Some other downsides: Because this model gets so hot, you cannot stack cutting boards or cookbooks or boxes of cereal on top while you’re using it or the fire department might come calling. And because the heating element is exposed and sits below the included perforated basket (it’s all about the airflow), I often line the basket with parchment for foods that might drip or place a pan below it to shield the heating rods from falling fat. Like other air fryers, it’s annoying to clean.
If you want an even bigger version of the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer, you’re in luck—the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro can fit an entire 14-pound turkey, 5-quart Dutch oven, or a 9×13-inch pan. It also comes with two more additional presets—proof and dehydrate.
Is all this not high-tech enough for you? The Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro is essentially the same hardware as the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro—13 modes, 14-pound turkey, all that—but this oven connects via Bluetooth to an app developed by Joule, the brand behind our favorite sous vide machine. The app features preset “recipes” that enable you to take full advantage of the oven’s many functions. For example, pop a chicken into the Joule Oven, select the rotisserie option, and the oven will automatically cycle through low temp convection interspersed with periods of broiling to mimic a chicken rotating on a spit.
The best basket air fryers
If you don’t have a lot of countertop space to spare, you usually cook in small batches, or you just want a compact air fryer, go for the basket-style variety. The average air fryer in this category has a 4-quart capacity, which is the ideal size for serving two people. But our favorite basket-style air fryers are slightly bigger, ranging from 5 to 7 quarts in capacity, and are great for cooking four to six servings. If an air fryer is labeled “XL,” you can expect it to have a capacity of 5 to 6 quarts, and if it’s labeled “XXL,” expect it to have a capacity of roughly 7 quarts. Read about our favorite basket-style air fryers below, listed from smallest to largest.
If it’s Big Crispy that you’re after, this Ninja Max XL air fryer produces extra crunchy fried chicken drumsticks, fish fillets, veggies, and frozen Dino nuggets. It has intuitive cooking functions for ease of use. The buttons on the front include options to air-fry, air-roast, air-broil, bake, and reheat, but it also includes a button most air fryers don’t: max crisp. While most air fryers are capable of going up to 400°F, the max crisp button turns the temperature up to 450°F, allowing food to get crunchier, faster. This Ninja air fryer also has a dehydrate function, so you can make your own dehydrated fruit, beef jerky and dried herbs. The basket doesn’t have holes in it like other air fryer baskets; instead it comes with a metal “crisper plate” that you place inside of the basket to allow air to circulate all around the food. We found the crisper plate a lot less annoying to clean than a basket.