Considering buying a toaster oven? You won’t regret it. Mini ovens are a convenient way to cook food at home without the cost of running a regular oven. But what can you cook in it? In this article, we’re sharing our favourite recipes and the best foods to cook in a toaster oven.
Mini Oven Meals
What can you cook in a mini oven? There are so many recipes you can make in a small oven. You can bake cakes, pies, potatoes, and chips. Additionally, you can make pizza, cook chicken and other meat. You can even brown cheese. There are so many meals and snacks to make in your mini oven.
Kale Chips
This makes a healthy, delicious recipe for an in-between-meals snack. Preheat the mini oven to 200 degrees and adjust the baking rack to the lowest position. Then, wash the kale leaves and remove thick stems. Cut or tear the leaves into smaller sized pieces.
Scatter the pieces of kale onto a tray and rub in olive oil. Massage the pieces to ensure that the kale chips are evenly covered. Then, sprinkle with some salt. Bake for 6 minutes, rotating the pieces underneath. Remove from the mini-oven, and allow them to cool before you eat them.
Potatoes
Potatoes are pretty much the main ingredient of a roast dinner. It also makes for a delicious side dish at any mealtime.
Begin by adjusting the rack in the mini oven to the lowest position, then preheat it to 200 degrees. Add oil to a tray and leave aside for the time being.
Cut the potatoes around 1/2 inch thick and parboil them for 10 minutes. Whilst they’re boiling, add the tray with oil into the mini oven until it becomes piping hot. Add other ingredients like salt, garlic, rosemary, and pepper to a bowl, then toss. Transfer everything to the tray and cook for around 30–40 minutes, flipping occasionally around halfway through.
Love my toaster oven 😍😍💕 made some roasted potatoes, Italian sausage, and melted cheese on top 🙂🙂 pic.twitter.com/oc9rGvzMe5
— @nni℮︎ ツ (@YoshiBanner) July 15, 2018
Baked Bread
Sometimes the feeling of achievement while enjoying homemade toast with butter in the mornings is priceless. You can make homemade bread in a mini oven to save money and customise the flavour for a unique taste. Mini ovens are perfect for making sourdough, ciabatta, garlic bread, bread and butter pudding, banana bread and more. Once baked, slice the loaf and enjoy warm or allow it to cool.
Pizza
You can bake pizza in a mini oven with ease and tasty results. Begin by preheating the toaster oven to the highest temperature it’ll reach, which will usually take 5–10 minutes. Add your pizza dough with toppings and place it inside the mini oven. Allow 7–12 minutes for it to cook thoroughly, depending on how you prefer your pizza cooked.
Chicken
You can easily cook tasty chicken for a couple of people in a mini oven. This type of oven works similar to a regular-size kitchen oven, enabling you to create a meal for one/or two without wasting too much electricity.
Add your meat to a tray with aluminium foil underneath (to prevent any sticky residue) and bake for up to 30 minutes, depending on what your recipe calls for. Keep in mind that smaller ovens don’t require as much time to cook meat as larger ovens.
Roast Veggies
Make a roast from scratch in a mini oven. Begin by boiling vegetables like broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower in a pan on the hob. You can parboil potatoes, too. Then, transfer them to a baking tray and add them to the preheated oven. Halfway through, flip and cook until piping hot before you serve.
Reminder When Baking in a Mini Oven
While you might not buy a mini oven solely for its baking purposes, toaster ovens are great for baking anything that you’d typically make in a regular oven.
However, keep in mind that a mini oven has less space than a traditional oven, so you’ll need to measure before placing anything in the oven to ensure that it fits appropriately and isn’t too close to the coils.
Tips for Cooking in a Small Oven
Once you’re confident of the recipe you’ll use in your toaster oven, here are some ways to make the most out of it.
Buy Small Aluminium Foil and Pans
Invest in smaller aluminium foil or cooking paper to easily fit inside the toaster oven so that you don’t have to fold pieces in half. Ensure that you measure your mini oven’s interior dimensions to correctly fit inside.
Furthermore, you’ll need to purchase smaller pots and pans to accommodate a smaller space than a big oven. For the best cooking results, consider stainless steel pans. This material heats up quickly, is non-toxic and remains durable. You may also find that stainless steel trays help make lasagne and other meals golden brown compared to other non-stick trays. Alternatively, consider cast iron, enamel, glass or ceramic materials.
Consider a Thermometer
It’s important that your toaster oven thoroughly cooks food all the way through. While a mini oven will include a temperature setting, they typically run at a higher temperature than a regular home oven.
As a result, an additional thermometer can help you accurately gauge the temperature, so you can lower it if needed.
Adjust Your Favourite Recipes
You can still eat your favourite meal in a mini oven. Simply modify your go-to recipes to half the required ingredients. Experiment with additional ingredients and the cooking time, too.
The Benefits of Mini Ovens
There are so many reasons to purchase a toaster oven, and below are some of our favourites.
Smaller Size
Since a mini oven offers a compact size, it makes an excellent kitchen appliance for smaller kitchen spaces. Toaster ovens make a great alternative to a full-sized, regular oven if you’re renovating your kitchen and don’t have much spare space.
Furthermore, you can mount mini ovens to a wall inside a cabinet or display them on your kitchen countertop. With their lightweight and clever design, they’re typically just around the size of a microwave.
Excellent Power
Despite its small size, a toaster oven contains all the essential heating elements of a regular oven to provide excellent power. With a heating coil on the top and one on the bottom, a mini oven can cook food quickly in just a minimal cooking time.
Energy Efficient
Mini ovens don’t cost too much to operate since their wattage is around half of a conventional oven. You don’t need to power on a large oven just to make smaller batches, which would waste a lot of energy. Best of all, mini ovens heat up much quicker since they have a smaller size, which is great if you have limited time.
Mini But Mighty
So what can you cook in a mini oven? Mini ovens are exceptionally versatile. You can cook some cheese, chicken, meat, pie, and so much more. Always remember to keep your oven clean to achieve the best cooking results. A toaster oven provides convenient, low-cost cooking, and you don’t need a lot of countertop space in your kitchen to cook homemade dishes every night.
Additional Resources
- How to Make Instant Coffee
- How to Use a Halogen Oven
- How to Whip Cream Using a Hand Mixer
- How Do Induction Pans Work
Tom is a former chef turned full-time food blogger. He has always been passionate about food, and loves nothing more than experimenting in the kitchen and sharing his recipes with others. Tom’s blog is one of the most popular food blogs on the internet, and he has won numerous awards for his cooking. When he’s not blogging or cooking, Tom enjoys spending time with his wife and two young children.
Hello Tom, I am seriously wanting to buy a mini oven, which I can cook all of the above things you have described. Also make cheese on toast. I live alone, and would really be grateful for your advice. I am unsure what size ie Litre of oven to buy, and which ones would be efficient, however appreciate advice also on best types to keep down running costs. I have been in a shop which had 21Ltr size, which appeared to me to be small, I therefore thought maybe bigger one so looked at 30 Ltr which looked to large, (Bit like the 3 bears) On serious note can you give me help with maybe a couple of choices at least, Regards Sandie