We tried an air fryer that can rotisserie a whole chicken - it's an affordable buy for healthy meals

The Innoteck 12L air fryer oven is a budget-friendly machine that’s spacious enough to roast a whole chicken – a feature that’s becoming increasingly popular when consumers are looking to buy larger versions of the best air fryers. 

The standout features here are the mammoth capacity and the plethora of accessories to use when cooking. That makes it perfect for keen chefs and those who know they will make the most of all of the space on offer, likely to be those with large families or who love to entertain. 

To see how well it performs, I tried a few of my favourite recipes for lunch and dinner to see whether it’s as quick and easy to use as other products we've tested at Ideal Home and to see if it stands up to the other large capacity air fryers of a different design, the best dual zone air fryers. 

Innoteck 12L air fryer product specs 

• Type: Air fryer oven with rotisserie
• Dimensions: 32.2 x 38.8 x 39.6cm
• Weight: 6kg
• Maximum temperature: 200C
• Cooking modes: Fries, meat, fish, shrimp, chicken, rotisserie, bake, dehydrate
• Power: 1800 watts
• Size: 12L
• Colour: Black
• Material: Stainless steel, plastic

Who tested this air fryer

Qin Xie

Qin Xie is a freelance journalist based in London specialising in all things food and travel. Having trained as a chef, she now regularly uses her skills to put different kitchen gadgets to the test. 

At home, she prefers to cook from scratch so her air fryer is usually used for grilling. Sweet potato fries and glazed salmon are some of the quick and easy recipes that she usually turns to.

For this review, she spent a couple of days trying out different recipes, including new and old favourites. She was also allowed to keep the appliance for future testing, so that this review can be updated in the future.

Unboxing the Innoteck 12L air fryer

It took me a while to get the Innoteck air fryer oven out of its packaging – the product came double boxed and, because of the weight of the product, the handle on the inner box ripped through the cardboard when I lifted it.

It meant that I had to spend quite a bit of time wriggling the two boxes free to remove the air fryer. Having seen photos of the product first, I was surprised by how much smaller it was compared to what we had imagined.

In fact, even though it has a 12L cooking capacity, I wasn't sure that we were going to be able to squeeze in a whole chicken for roasting – more on that later. At 6kg, it’s actually light enough to move from storage to the countertop if you need to.

Unlike other air fryers I've tested in the past, this one came with a few accessories, including a drip tray, three mesh shelves, a rotisserie spit, a rotisserie basket and a tool for removing the rotisserie accessories. I was particularly excited by the rotisserie basket as it would save me from having to turn our chips halfway through cooking.

Cooking rotisserie-style chicken

Given the rotisserie function is this air fryer’s star feature, I decided to test this element out first. The machine doesn’t come with any recipes, only cooking times for different foods as well as what accessories to use for them.

It did however tell me that the maximum weight of the chicken I could roast was 1.8kg – but given the size of the air fryer chamber, I played it safe and got one that weighed just 1.35kg. 

Even then I had to bind the chicken to make sure the wings and legs stayed in place and the whole body was slim enough to rotate. We also found fitting the spit onto the chicken and then into the oven quite fiddly and could have done with clearer instructions and tips for getting the best results.

With the machine set to 200C, it needed just under an hour to get the colour on the skin and for the meat to cook through. The results were pretty impressive though – the fat from the chicken helped to baste the meat as it cooked so I got the crispy skin and juicy flesh I was looking for.

And it took less time than it would have done in the oven (70-80 minutes), if you discount the time it took me to set it all up. The downside was that the fat from the chicken splattered all over the air frying chamber during cooking, which meant a lot of cleaning up. The non-stick surfaces made this fairly straightforward but it was still time consuming to wipe everything down afterwards.

Air frying homemade chips

I decided to make our usual sweet potato fries to go with the chicken. Having used the cooking time to prep the chips, I then used the resting time for the meat to cook the fries as, unlike a conventional oven, this air fryer oven definitely wasn’t spacious enough to cook both at the same time.

I used the rotisserie basket for this next bit. Innoteck recommends a maximum volume of 3¼ cups, which is just under 500g. With our normal air fryer, I just have to toss the fries in some oil and seasoning and cook for 15 minutes or so, turning once. It’s never quite as crispy as the deep fried stuff but it’s usually pretty good, and worth it for the quick time it takes.

The Innoteck air fryer oven had 15 minutes at 200C as the default setting for fries so that's what I went with this first. When the time was up, the sweet potatoes were still raw so they went back in for another 5 minutes.

At this point the results were best described as floppy with singed edges. With the second batch, I went straight in with 20 minutes and got slightly better results but the fries were more dehydrated than fried – I think the internal temperature just wasn’t hot enough.

All in all, it’s not one I’d recommend for homemade chips. The Instant Vortex Plus 6 in 1 (Ideal Home's number one air fryer) is much better suited to chips thanks to its basket design. 

Cooking crispy bacon 

I decided to make the most of our leftover chicken for sandwiches and for that we needed some crispy bacon.

The Innoteck air fryer oven doesn’t have a bacon setting, or instructions for cooking bacon, so I had to work it out myself using the closest thing in the manual – pigs in blankets.

For this, the manufacturer suggests 13-15 minutes at 200C; I thought I’d play it safe and test it at 5 minute intervals. As it turns out, somewhere around 13 minutes was perfect. I used back bacon for testing and placed these across two mesh shelves. 

The rashers on the top shelf were quickly blown over by the force of the fan so I had to rearrange them after five minutes to make sure they cooked evenly. There wasn’t any need to turn the bacon halfway through cooking – the rashers cooked evenly all the way through, with all the fat fully rendered – so I was pretty pleased with the results for this one.

Cooking frozen snacks

For the last test, we got out some frozen snacks: shop bought onion bhajis and salt and pepper squid. These are ultimate beige foods that are usually perfect for the air fryer.

Based on previous tests, I decided to go with 15 minutes at 200C as the starting point – this was actually the same recommended cooking time for a conventional oven. The result was spot on; the edges were lightly crispy on both while the inside was cooked through.

Further proof that frozen foods in an air fryer will very rarely let you down.

How does it compare to similar models and their predecessors?

I actually have three air fryers at home, one that’s just an air fryer (Proscenic) and two multi-cookers (Ninja and Instant Pot).

All of these use less power to achieve higher temperatures than the Innoteck air fryer oven, meaning they can cook food faster and are more energy efficient. The Innoteck air fryer oven performed particularly poorly in the sweet potato fries test but for other dishes, it was also slower than our usual machines.

One reason is that the Innoteck air fryer oven has such a large capacity, which takes longer to heat up and uses more power to keep hot. It beats a regular oven for efficiency but it’s definitely not the most energy efficient model out there if you’re looking to save money.

I also felt that the instructions were insufficient compared to other air fryers I’ve tested; I had to figure things out on my own quite a few times. That said, it’s much quieter during use – I measured noise levels in the low 60s dBA, which I'd happily work through. 

If you want a large capacity air fryer that can work at faster speeds, we'd recommend the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone air fryer, which is unbelievably convenient to use.

Should you buy the Innoteck 12L air fryer oven?

If you’re new to air frying, the Innoteck air fryer oven probably isn’t one for you. It doesn’t have as many automated features as some of the other products on the market and it doesn’t come with any recipes to get you started. And with a pretty basic instruction manual, you’ll end up doing a lot of trial and error yourself.

However, if you’re looking for a device that’s more of a mini-oven for a small home then this might work. It has a much bigger capacity than many other air fryers on the market and with a rotisserie function and multiple shelves, you can get pretty creative with it. If you do want to cook a whole chicken like I did for an affordable price, then it's a good option to consider.

Ultimately, given there are quite a few similar products on the market, for us it would come down to the price, with an RRP of £129.99. If there’s a good deal then go for it – but if there’s a cheaper competitor, such as the Tower 5-in-1 air fryer, then there’s no reason not to switch.

About this review, and this reviewer

For this review, as part of our commitment to how we test products that we recommendat Ideal Home, Qin spent a couple of days trying out different recipes, including new and old favourites. She was also allowed to keep the appliance for future testing, so that this review can be updated in the future.