Breville Smart Oven Air Review

Let me first say, this is not a sponsored post and I didn’t receive anything free. This is my honest raving opinion about the Breville Smart Oven Air. It is my top pick and is literally the one appliance I would take if I only had ten minutes to pack up everything I owned.

I have owned a Breville Smart Oven for years and they just released the NEW version that has an air fryer so I decided it was time to upgrade.

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I’ll explain the pros and cons of the Breville countertop oven, what I like to cook in it EVERY SINGLE DAY and where to buy it.

Pros of Breville Smart Oven Air

The Breville is An Ideal Size

The Breville Oven is the perfect size oven for everyday use if you are cooking for four people or less. It is especially ideal if you have a small kitchen or limited counter space. A full-size oven not only takes a lot of time and energy to heat, but it heats up the whole house. The Breville is small enough that it heats up in less time and has a faster cooking time. It has 8 rack positions and comes with 2 racks. If you do a lot of cooking the Breville oven would be ideal as a second oven in addition to your standard oven.

It’s a countertop convection oven

If you’ve ever cooked with a convection oven you’ll never go back. What is a convection oven? It’s an oven that has a convection fan built in to circulate hot air around your food while it cooks. With this cooking process your food is cooked more evenly. If you’re reheating food, it helps to make sure there are no cool spots.

The Breville Is More Versatile Than an Oven

I use my Breville every night for dinner and sometimes for lunch too. Below, I will share what I like to cook in my Breville oven. It has so many different functions; you can toast, roast, air fry, bake, warm and it even has a slow cook function. There are more, but they seem repetitive to me. It can be used with the convection setting and the non-convection mode. It can also measure in Fahrenheit and Celsius.

It’s Easy to Clean

You know when you spill something in your full size oven and you dread how hard it is going to be to clean? The Breville is so easy to clean. You just pull out the bottom removable crumb tray and clean it like a cookie sheet. The wire racks pulls out and are small enough to fit in the dishwasher.

Fun New Colors

The older version, which I also loved, came only in stainless steel. The new one comes in silver, sea salt (white), smoked hickory, black (which I chose), royal champagne (which looks brass), blue and oyster shell. I love the black color because my counters are black.

There’s An Air Fryer

If you’re like me maybe you were tempted to buy an air fryer, but you don’t have room to store another bulky appliance. The new Breville has an air fry setting and comes with an Air fry basket. I use it for french fries, fried zucchini and hash browns. It really makes these foods so much crisper than just baking them on a cookie sheet.

Cons of the Breville Smart Oven

Honestly, the only con I can come up with is the price. It’s not a cheap appliance, but I use it so much. I do wish that it could also be used as a microwave, but I very rarely use my microwave. Everything tastes so much better in this oven.

What I Cook In the Breville Oven Every Week

I use my Breville to cook these things every week. 

Roast Chicken – I make my own “rotisserie chicken” in the Breville in just an hour and 15 minutes. You can read about that in this post about Trader Joe’s Spatchcocked chicken. You might not think it’s big enough to roast a whole chicken, but it is. If I make a regular chicken (not spatchcocked) I move the oven rack to the lower position.

Roasted Vegetables – I roast lots of vegetables in this oven including cauliflower, broccoli, new potatoes, tomatoes, asparagus, acorn squash and more. These are things I roast every single week. I love to eat roasted vegetables as a side dish and to throw the leftovers into salads. 

Steak – We are a steak family and my favorite way to cook steak is indoors. It’s too hot to grill in Texas most of the year, and I don’t like to grill when it’s cold either. I brown the meat on both sides on stove in a cast iron pan. Then I put it into a 400 degree oven to finish, for thick steaks. This can take anywhere from 4-12 minutes depending on the cut of meat.

Reheating leftovers – Some things taste bad when you microwave them. The Breville heats up so fast that I don’t reheat things in the microwave. All chicken gets rubbery in the microwave. I reheat Chick Fillet strips in the oven and they taste as good as they did when I bought them.

Making toast – This oven has a toaster setting that’s as good as any toaster or standard toaster oven out there. 

Air Frying – The new Breville has the smart oven air fryer pro and I’ve been using it to fry zucchini and pickles, get the recipe here.

Cooking Bacon – Cooking bacon on the stove is a messy task. I love the way it tastes and the clean up when I cook it in the oven. It gets so much crisper. I’m pretty picky when it comes to bacon. It doesn’t get crispy enough in the microwave. I can cook 12 pieces of bacon at a time in 16 minutes.

Frittatas – These delicious dishes are a staple in my house, maybe because I could cook them in my sleep at the B&B. I finish them off in the broiler.

Where to Get Your Breville Smart Oven

I bought mine from Williams Sonoma. I used to work there when I was in college and they have great customer service. Amazon is convenient, but not when it comes to addressing problems. When it comes to appliances I don’t want to deal with a company that ONLY operates online, call me old fashioned, but it’s true.

Of all my kitchen appliances, the Breville Smart Oven Air is hands down by favorite. Despite it’s small size it’s the appliance I use most often, every day as a matter of fact. Although it is not cheap, it is the best value for the money in my opinion.

Before you go, you might be wondering about air fryers, is a drawer/basket type better than this rack and which to choose a toaster oven or a microwave?

Have you ever considered a countertop rotisserie oven?