Can this new combo air fryer really replace three kitchen appliances? I tested to find out
I tested the Magnifique Combo Air Fryer, a nontoxic, multitasking device, in my apartment for three weeks. Here are my thoughts
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The combo kitchen appliance is not new. Look no further than the popularity of multicookers such as the Instant Pot, or Ninja’s array of devices that vow to do everything but eat your food for you.
But, for the most part, these concentrate on quick pressure cooking and slow braising. With 12 cooking modes, the new Magnifique Combo Air Fryer wants to be a little something for every home cook: an air fryer, slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer and more. Oh, and it’s nontoxic, too. Unlike its closest brethren, the Ninja Foodi, it is crafted solely from glass and stainless steel with no Pfas and no Teflon.
Sounds neat, right? But can it possibly live up to the sum of its parts? Will it make your fries crispy, your rice fluffy and your chicken tender? And, crucially: will it do away with your clutter of kitchen appliances once and for all?
As a lifelong apartment dweller and product reviewer with more than 15 years of experience, I have tested my share of kitchen gadgets that claim to save both time and space. After three weeks of putting the Magnifique Combo Air Fryer to the test, I think it would appeal to only certain people, though I was generally impressed with the results.
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At a glance
The first-ever combo air fryer and multicooker:
Magnifique Combo Air Fryer
The combo air fryer and toaster oven I compared against:
Our Place Wonder Oven Pro
The multicooker I compared against:
Breville The Fast Slow Go Multicooker
The rice cooker I compared against:
Zojirushi Induction Heating System Rice Cooker
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What makes the Magnifique Combo Air Fryer different?
The most profound difference Magnifique offers is its design. Instead of a big pot with a whole lot of different buttons, the Combo Air Fryer is basically two units in one, thanks to swappable parts and a single 4.5qt glass bowl as its unifying feature.
I was excited yet hesitant as I took it out of the box. I don’t think I’ve ever tested a kitchen product that came with two distinct power cords, one for its air frying component and one for multicooking.
You’ll also unpack a multicooker base, an air frying hood, a glass lid, silicone safety gloves and two racks – one for crisping and one for steaming. It may not surprise you that the Magnifique weighs a hefty 12lbs and 14oz (6kg) in total, though its size isn’t inherently bigger than other air fryers or multicookers.
Magnifique Combo Air Fryer
The base and glass bowl work for all the cooking modes, but you must swap out the covers depending on what you are preparing. So no, you cannot braise and crisp at the same time, and per the instructions, you also cannot have both plugs in a socket at the same time.
I left the unit on my counter while I tested and ended up storing both lids in the dish rack next to my sink. To say my husband was not amused is an understatement. “How long are those going to be there?” he asked me incredulously. I assured him just for a few weeks, and then I’d find a spot for them in the pantry. The woes of a product tester …
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How well does it perform as an air fryer?
I mainly used it for weeknight dinners for my family of four, but we also fired it up for lunches since my older son is home from university and wants his mom to make his meals (admittedly, I’m so happy to have him home that I’m thrilled for an excuse to cook for him).
The air fryer hood has four presets: Bake, Airfry, ReCrisp, MaxCrisp. You place the crisping rack and your food in the glass bowl, plug in and place the air fryer hood atop the bowl and press your button of choice.
The timer automatically starts at 10 minutes, but here’s the kicker: you can adjust the time, but you cannot adjust the temperature. Its LCD screen does not display how high the heat is (and you can’t find the info in its instruction manual either). That said, its 450F (230C) maximum temperature is the average upper limit for most air fryers on the market.
Airfry mode
My go-to air fryer meal has always been healthy chicken breasts sans skin. I defrosted four breasts, sprayed them with avocado oil and lightly covered them in a kebab mix I covet from the local Middle Eastern market. I only had to add five minutes on top of the preset 10 minutes to fully cook 1.7lbs of chicken, though I flipped the breasts at 10 using the gloves included.
The end result was a slightly crispy outside and a juicy interior – about the same as I get from my Our Place Wonder Oven Pro.
MaxCrisp mode
Both of my sons love chicken wings. For this test, I dabbed a pound of frozen wings dry with a paper towel, sprinkled them with salt and pepper and pressed the MaxCrisp instead of the Airfry button to cook them. One thing about this oven? Though its instructions do suggest using the gloves to shake the bowl, I didn’t feel comfortable picking up the heavy glass vessel to do so. Instead, I took the hood off at 10 minutes and turned each wing with a pair of tongs.
After six to seven more minutes, they were all cooked through, after which I threw them in a metal bowl and tossed them with Korean wing sauce. My sons extolled the crispiness and made short work of the entire bowl in record time.
Lastly I threw in half a bag of thinly cut french fries. It was here that I started to wish for a basket I could shake, because without the ability to lower the temperature, getting them to cook evenly meant I had to constantly take the air fryer hood off and use the gloves to move them around. It’s certainly doable, but I’d much rather use my Our Place air fryer toaster oven or even a conventional, drawer-type air fryer.
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How well does it perform as a multicooker?
The multicooker aspect (max temperature 214F) fascinated me. It has eight buttons: Slow Cook, Steam, Braise, Rice, Proof, Pasta, Oatmeal and Keep Warm.
Steam mode
My kids are mad for soup dumplings. To steam a bagful from the local Japanese supermarket, I added the steam rack and 3in of water in the glass bowl, and swapped out the air fryer hood for the glass lid. They took about 12 minutes to cook through.
The default 10 minutes were just right for fresh broccoli, which came out bright green and perfectly steamed. Since then, I’ve also steamed pierogies and other veggies such as carrots, though those took about 15 minutes to cook.
Rice mode
I gave up on white rice a long time ago, forcing my family to eat healthier brown and wild rice. But that also takes a lot more time to prepare – my Zojirushi rice cooker takes approximately 90 minutes to cook brown rice.
My edition of the user manual had perplexingly few directions for this appliance, so I asked a Magnifique representative, who suggested I add 2 ¼ cups of water for 1 cup of brown rice. (She also told me that, since then, the team added this to an updated user manual, per my feedback.)
The brown rice came out nicely after just one hour, which was pleasantly surprising, though it wasn’t as firm as the rice from my Zojirushi.
Braise (then MaxCrisp) mode
I decided to not only braise my bone-in chicken breasts, but also see if I could crisp up the skin after without moving it to my oven’s broiler. Braising took about three hours, after which I switched in the air fryer hood and pressed the MaxCrisp feature. And though I did not switch out the steam rack for the air fry rack, I still got a crackling, crunchy chicken skin in under five minutes.
Slow Cook mode
Unlike with my Breville Fast Slow Go multicooker, I could not saute and simmer the ingredients for a tikka masala sauce directly in the bowl. After starting the sauce on the stove and transferring it to the Magnifique Combo Air Fryer, I added two large chicken breasts and pressed the Slow Cook button, which gives you a choice of low or high. Low gave me a timer of seven hours, perfect for dinnertime. I added some precooked brown rice and frozen peas at about six hours in.
When the time was up, I had a one-pot casserole that I could simply dole out into outstretched bowls. The chicken was fall-apart tender, the main reason I’d bother to use the Magnifique to cook a dish that might be done on the stovetop in under an hour.
Pasta mode
I’m a total carb snob and had no interest in cooking pasta with a device that wouldn’t allow me to adjust the temperature and taste for perfect al dente, but I did use the Pasta function to hard boil eggs.
I placed three eggs in about 4in of water, and the cooker beeped after about 10 minutes, which I assume meant that the water was boiling. After waiting five more minutes, I had typical hard-boiled eggs with a chalky yolk, perfect for deviled eggs or a cobb salad.
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How easy is the Magnifique to use and clean?
The buttons are laid out well, simple to read and generally self explanatory. I was, however, taken aback by how little guidance there was in its instruction manual, such as pointers on how long to cook things or how much water to add for white rice, brown rice, pasta or grains. I’ve been told that Magnifique now offers an updated, more detailed manual, though I haven’t perused it myself.
Cleaning was easy. Because the bowl and its cover are glass, they’re dishwasher safe – and the racks are too, which is especially helpful after a greasy cook.
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So, is the Magnifique Combo Air Fryer worth it?
The short answer? It checks a lot of boxes and offers a handful of cooking modes in just one device, from air fry to slow cook. And I appreciate that it’s a nontoxic option.
I could also see this as an absolute game changer for anyone who doesn’t have go-to appliances, or enough storage space to acquire some: those living in a small apartment, going to college or looking to outfit a kitchen that isn’t used often. And if you’re a very budget-conscious home cook, you are indeed getting a fully functioning air fryer and multi-cooker for the price of one.
Yet, for me, and I suspect many households, it overlaps without surpassing much of what I already have in my pantry: air-fryer toaster oven, rice cooker, multicooker. It didn’t perform worse than my current devices on any front, but the only features that confidently excelled past them were the steaming and the braise/crisp duo.
In the meantime, with my son moving into his first apartment on campus this September, I cannot wait to pack the Magnifique Combo Air Fryer up for him and his roommates. For them, it will be an epic, healthy option for meals and snacks – and hopefully save them cash on Uber Eats to boot.
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Other pieces you might enjoy from the Filter, the Guardian’s guide to buying fewer, better things:
‘The perfect food storage finally exists’: I tried the new Anydeli plastic-free containers
Instant coffee v drip: our blind taste test may unravel your assumptions
The seven best non-toxic cooking pans in the US, tested in a food lab
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