CRISP. Tech : Instant Pot® Duo Crisp™ + Air Fryer Review

11 Cooking Options, 2 Lids, 1 Appliance.

 

Since its creation in 2010, the Instant Pot has been ‘America’s most loved multi cooker’ and one of the best selling small kitchen appliances in the world.

Instant Pot has six models available and is wildly popular on Pinterest, Instagram and other social platforms. It is known and loved for its ability to cook delicious and healthy meals quickly and easily.

The Instant Pot is a revolution in home cooking and makes preparing great meals accessible to all–no fancy kitchen or techniques required. The Instant Pot is a one-man-show and can do it all.

After hearing all the buzz about Instant Pots for some time now, we were keen to try one for ourselves. The new Instant Pot® Duo Crisp™ + Air Fryer literally had our name written all over it!

This latest model from Instant Pot does everything a regular Instant Pot does, but thanks to swappable lids, even more dry cooking techniques are possible; including air frying, roasting, baking, broiling and dehydrating. We think that’s pretty…well…Crisp.!

 

 

Functionality and features

The Instant Pot® Duo Crisp™ + Air Fryer cooks tasty, healthy meals in a fraction of the time of traditional methods.

If you’re a ‘one pan dinner’ kind of person, then this is the appliance for you. It boasts 11 cooking functionalities, which can be used in conjunction to cook a meal from start to finish. These functionalities include;

Wet – using the pressure cooker lid

• pressure cook
• saute
• steam
• slow-cook
• sous vide (“what’s this?” you may be asking? It’s a slow cooking method using vacuum-sealed foods in a water bath at an exact temperature.)

Dry – using the air fryer lid

• air fry
• roast
• bake
• broil
• dehydrate

The product manual is not one you’ll want to skip reading. It took us a few uses to get familiar with the machine, but once we cracked it, there was no looking back. Some of our favourite foods that we made using the Instant Pot® Duo Crisp™ + Air Fryer were barbeque pulled pork, biltong, roasted veggies, butter chicken curry, steamed salmon and rice, chicken shawarma and homemade chips.

 

 

 

 

What’s in the box

In the Duo Crisp™ + Air Fryer box you’ll find:

• Electronic base unit
• 8-litre stainless steel pot 
• air fryer lid
• pressure cooker lid
• multi-level air fryer basket with stand
• steam rack with a high and low setting
• dehydrator/grill tray
• protective pad for air fryer lid

 

 

Design

Our first impression of the Duo Crisp was that it is big. This is definitely something to take into consideration before purchase as it would be bulky to leave on a worktop and takes up a significant amount of storage space with all its parts.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by so many options and accessories when getting started. While this multicooker is intuitive and easy to use, it is not foolproof.

It has a sleek, attractive design and a simple control panel.

How much does it cost?

The Duo Crisp retails for £179.99, which we think is a fair price when you take into account how much you’d spend on standalone appliances and kitchenware to do all of its cooking functions.

Verdict

We were intrigued to try the pressure cooking feature to see if it really did cut down cooking time.

For the most part, it did, though you have to take into consideration the amount of time it takes for the pot to pressurise as well as release pressure (if you do a natural release). The pressurising and pressure release can add an additional 15 to 20 minutes to the total cooking time. Still, we found this an improvement to our usual cooking methods. There was no pot-watching, minimal cooking smells and the manual pressure release at the end was oddly satisfying.

The dry cooking lid is the star of this show. It truly makes ordinary meals into something special.

Using the dry cooking lid to broil at the end adds a beautiful brown crispy finish to the meal.

The air fryer is also a favourite feature of ours. From leftovers to Oreos to broccoli, you name it, we air fried it! The only drawback of the air fryer is that the basket is fairly small compared to some of the other standalone air fryers on the market, though this is a welcome trade-off for us to have the air fryer and other appliances consolidated into one.

The best part about the Duo Crisp for us is the ability to make a meal in one pot from start to finish. From sauteing to cooking to broiling. Less time and fewer dishes are always a bonus.

Admittedly, we were a bit skeptical about whether this miracle cooker would live up to the hype. We tried and tested most of its 11 functions and can honestly say we don’t want to live without it now. 

The Instant Pot® Duo Crisp™ + Air Fryer ticks all boxes for those wanting to eat flavourful, healthy food without spending hours in the kitchen, and for that we are proud to share the Crisp. name with this innovative product.

 

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