Our Honest Review of the CruxGG Touch-Activated 6QT Air Fryer

Tested by Sharon Franke for Food Network Kitchen

It’s easy to understand the appeal of an air fryer, which promises to cook up crispy food using very little fat. However, too often these appliances don’t produce much more crunch than an oven or even a toaster oven. And considering that they’re large, bulky, and not exactly eye candy for your countertop, it’s important to do your homework before you buy one. We tested the brand new CruxGG Touch-Activated 6QT Air Fryer to see if it was a top performing air fryer on the market.

What Is the CruxGG Touch-Activated 6QT Air Fryer?

Available exclusively at Target, this air fryer is part of a collaboration between Crux, a Made By Gather company, and Ghetto Gastro, a Bronx-based culinary collective. Ghetto Gastro collaborated with Crux on a CruxGG line which includes this air fryer. The Ghetto Gastro team gave extensive input on the design of the air fryer with an eye towards making it attractive, easy to use, and affordable.
With its unusual light gray matte finish, this appliance looks very contemporary. It has a touchscreen that becomes invisible when you’re not using it, so that the fryer almost looks like a decorative object on the countertop.

CruxGG Touch-Activated 6QT Air Fryer: At a Glance

Pros

• Excels at air frying, broiling, roasting, and reheating
• Reasonably priced
• Attractive streamlined design
• Easy to program
• No preheat required
• Removable parts are dishwasher safe

Cons

• Poor at baking
• Instruction Manual and Recipe Booklet could be more helpful

How We Tested

We tested each of the CruXGG Touch-Activated 6QT Air Fryer’s functions. On air fry, we made batches of frozen French Fries, onion rings, and chicken nuggets. Using the bake function, we prepared cakes and biscuits. To check the roast setting, we made chicken breasts and broccolini. We cooked chicken breasts and hamburgers on the broil setting and reheated slices of pizza with the reheat setting. In addition to evaluating how well the air fryer cooked, as we worked, we considered how easy the product was to use and clean. We also evaluated the instruction manual and recipe booklet.

Air Fry Turned Out Crispy Fries and Evenly Cooked Chicken Nuggets

Our first test was frozen French fries. We air fried 4 cups, the amount specified in the manual. The fries cooked in just 15 minutes (the preprogrammed time) and came out nice and crispy, if unevenly browned. To see how the fryer handled a larger quantity, we cooked a pound of fries, increasing the cooking time and tossing them halfway through the cooking time. Again, the fries were crisp, but not completely evenly colored. Next, we air fried a 12-ounce package of frozen chicken nuggets, turning over the pieces at the midpoint; the chicken was beautifully browned and crisped, yet perfectly moist and tender. Lastly, we cooked a half pound of frozen onion rings, which also came out golden and crunchy and not a bit overcooked.

Bake Is Not Our Favorite Function

We whipped up a yellow cake from a mix and baked it in an 8-inch pan on the bake setting in the default temperature (350°F) for 25 minutes. The cake came out severely domed, lopsided, and almost burnt on top. On the bottom it was golden brown. Using the same mix, we baked a cake in a 4-inch pan as recommended in the recipe for Red Velvet Cake, at the same temperature for just 15 minutes. We got a little cake that looked like a popover with a dark brown, domed top that separated from the body of the cake.

To see if another baked item would fare better, we tried refrigerated flaky biscuits, reducing the temperature and time suggested by the biscuit company. After 10 minutes the biscuits were lofty, flaky, and very well browned on top and slightly underbaked on the bottom.

Our conclusion: The CruxGG is only good for baked goods in a pinch.

Roasted Veggies Were a Cinch

Using the temperature and time in the chart in the manual, we cooked two boneless skinless chicken breasts, making sure to turn them over during cooking. Although we had to almost double the cooking time, the breasts came out juicy and slightly browned. When we used the roast setting to prepare the broccolini recipe from the manual we got tender-crisp stalks with a slightly crispy Parmesan cheese topping.

Broil Is Better Than a Full-Size Oven

When it came to broiling, this air fryer knocked it out of the park. Chicken breasts came out evenly golden brown and crusty top and bottom and moist and tender inside. We only wish we could get such perfect results from our oven or toaster oven’s broiler or our outdoor grill. Then, we broiled four hamburgers which came out looking grilled and cooked to an ideal temperature. We liked the fact that spatters remained inside the air fryer basket and didn’t leave you with a messy oven, grill, or countertop to contend with.

Reheat Is Perfect for Pizza

If you pretty much exist on nothing else but reheated pizza, you might want to replace all your other appliances with the CruxGG. While at 6 minutes, it took longer than a microwave, it melted the cheese superbly and slightly crisped up the bottom so that it tasted just as good as a slice you grab at a pizzeria.

How Easy Is It To Use?

Without a doubt, this in one of the easiest-to-use air fryers on the market. The touchscreen display is relatively uncomplicated and easy to navigate. After pressing a pad to “wake up” the screen, you choose from one of the five settings, each of which is preprogrammed with a time and temperature. You also have the option of increasing or decreasing the cooking time and temp. Once you make your selections, the air fryer automatically begins cooking. On some appliances, you have to press far more pads, which can lead to mishaps and confusion.
There’s no preheat, so as soon as you’re ready to cook, you can place your food in the fryer, which is a convenience and a timesaver. We don’t think preheating would have improved our results.

The basket pulls out of and slides into the housing smoothly. As it operates, the air fryer is noisy, but it makes a gentle whooshing sound not a shrill racket. The sides and top of the unit get quite warm to the touch, but not hot enough to cause burns. Both the basket and the crisping tray can be popped in the dishwasher. If you prefer to wash the pieces by hand, they have a nonstick coating (although there are quite a few crevices on the crisping tray that take a bit of effort to get clean).

Our Major Con: The Manual and Recipe Booklet Aren’t the Best

The Instruction Manual and Recipe Booklet that are included with the machine could be more helpful.

While the air fryer is very intuitive to program even without reading the manual, cooks who are new to air frying will definitely want some guidance as to techniques and choosing cooking settings. The booklet clearly explains the operation of the fryer but fails to give the most basic advice, such as the maximum amount of food to cook at once and that for the best results, food should be tossed or turned at least once during air frying. In all fairness, in the Trouble Shooting section it does mention that frying smaller amounts and shaking foods could solve a problem.

The charts in the manual give recommendations for the air fry and roast settings but not for the bake, broil, and reheat ones. Some of the suggestions in the chart are confusing. For example, it tells you to roast hamburgers which you would typically broil and to air fry cake which you would typically bake. For many items, both air fry and roast instructions are given but it’s not clear why you would use one or the other.

We also think the Recipe Booklet created by Gastro Ghetto that comes with the fryer could do a better job of giving ideas as to what to cook in the air fryer. For starters, it contains a mere four recipes. All of them sound very appealing. However, the Broccolini and Arctic Char recipes have long ingredient lists that feel like they complicate relatively simple dishes for two. Sweet Potatoes Fries calls for two pounds of potatoes which is far more than the owner’s manual specifies in the air fry chart. Most problematic is the Red Velvet Cake which calls for baking 2 four-inch cakes. There are no instructions for turning the two small cakes into the large 3-layer cake shown in the picture. And we hate to quibble, but how many people have a “favorite Swiss meringue cream cheese buttercream frosting” as called for in the recipe?

To test a recipe, we prepared Broccolini. While the preparation instructions were clear, the recipe called for a temperature of 375°F which is not one of the available temperature settings on the air fryer. The suggested cooking time was accurate. Although the results were tasty, we’re not sure it was worth spending the money on two different Italian cheeses and pine nuts as well as rounding up a host of pantry items to cook 10 stalks of broccolini.

Who Should Buy This?

Just about anyone who is looking for an air fryer will love the CruxGG. As long as food is tossed or flipped over during cooking, it comes out delectably crisp, just like the best fried food. The fact that it’s also excellent at broiling is a big bonus for cooks who like to serve simple fare like burgers, chicken breasts, or fish. And while it does take up a chunk of counterspace, it’s actually attractive. That makes it appealing if you’ve been reluctant to purchase an air fryer because of aesthetics.