Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro Review

Our reviewer was sent a sample of the Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro to test. Keep reading for our full product review.

Countertop ovens are more than just oversized toaster ovens, and the Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro is a worthy contender in that space. I used it for a variety of foods—and a variety of meals—ignoring both oven and stove. French fries, pizzas, and sheet pan meals made their way into and out of the oven, with and without the help of the app. Is it worth the space it takes? Read on to find out.

Performance: Always solid

Like any cooking appliance, a quick cleaning of the racks and pans, and a quick wipe-down of the interior got the process started. Then, it simply connected to my home Wi-Fi and I paired it with my Alexa device. The oven asked to do an update, then it was ready for cooking.

It’s no surprise that this oven was a solid performer, since that’s expected from Breville products. Cooking was surprisingly even thanks to convection, even when I missed the prompt to turn the pan around midway through cooking. French fries, spread out on the air fryer basket and using the app rather than package instructions, were an excellent test. I paid attention to the app and turned the pan around and gave the fries a shake midway through cooking. The resulting fries were evenly golden. If I wanted them darker I could have used the handy “a little more” option to cook them slightly longer, but I didn’t feel the need. Overall, it was a success. I also used the oven’s pizza setting for a frozen pizza, once again ignoring package directions. It was simple, and the pizza was nicely cooked.

Although I typically chose other methods for cooking steak, I decided to give the app recipe for air-fried steak a try. The oven doesn’t have an integrated food thermometer, so I used my own remote thermometer to make sure the steak was cooked to my liking. The instructions suggested that I line the roasting pan with aluminum foil, then oil and season the steak on the pan. That initially seemed a bit odd—to dirty the roasting pan when I would be using the basket for cooking. But then it made sense, since the roasting rack was used as a drip pan on the bottom rack of the oven, keeping the oven clean during cooking. The foil made it easy to clean when cooking was done.

While it wasn’t the absolutely best steak ever, it was well cooked with a nice crust. And it was a hands-off process that’s great for those days when other things need attention. Fried shrimp, fresh vegetables, apple cake, and a deep-dish pizza also made their way into the oven. There wasn’t a single failure, which was impressive.

Design: Attractive on the counter

This oven comes with a brushed stainless steel finish or a dark stainless steel finish at a slightly higher price. It looks deceptively small, considering the generous interior space. Thanks to a rounded bump-out on the back of the oven, it can accommodate a typical frozen pizza.

The rack system is ingenious. The racks are built so they can be inserted in one orientation so they’re higher in the oven, and inserted in the other orientation so they sit lower in the oven. That gives twice as many rack positions simply by flipping the racks upside down. The front window shows numbered rack positions, so it’s easy to follow recipes that ask for a particular position.

The controls should be familiar to anyone who has used a Breville product before, and it should also be intuitive for new users. The app can be used to control the oven as well, although for safety, the user needs to press the button to start the cooking.

Besides settings for cook settings, time, and temperature, there are handy buttons to turn convection on and off, to toggle the frozen food setting on and off, to turn the oven light on, and Breville’s signature “a little more” setting that adds cooking time to any recipe. The last button is for a user-set favorite cook, which is handy when there’s a particular food that’s cooked often, like morning bagels or reheated pizza.

Compatibility with Google and Alexa devices makes it even more user friendly. If the oven’s beep isn’t enough to prompt that the oven is preheated or the food is done, Alexa will tell you. 

Features: It’s so smart

Besides the smart features on the oven itself, with presets for a variety of foods, the extra-smart feature is the app. It currently has recipes from Breville’s own test kitchen as well as ChefSteps and Williams Sonoma, with more recipes to come from chefs and media outlets.

Autopilot recipes are particularly interesting, since they take the foods through multiple stages and temperatures, like proofing rolls and then baking them, sometimes at different temperatures or using different heating elements. While you can certainly control the recipes manually, some recipes take advantage of heating options that aren’t available outside the app, like bottom bake, bottom broil, convection broil, outer top broil, inner top broil, and gentle broil.

Of course, like any recipes, you can modify ingredients while still following the cooking instructions as I did when making the app’s roasted Brussels sprouts using raspberry vinegar instead of pomegranate.

Cleaning: Easy enough

The stainless steel interior is as easy to clean as other countertop ovens. The heating elements—often the most delicate feature in countertop ovens—are protected by heavy duty wires that make it impossible to smack into the elements accidentally. Hand washing is recommended for all of the removable accessories.

Included Items: The essentials

This comes with two oven racks, one roasting pan with rack, one nonstick pizza pan, and one air fryer basket. While it would have been nice to have a second air fryer basket for larger batches, a second basket might not cook as efficiently as a single one. The other removable item is the crumb tray that is accessible from the outside of the oven, and that’s designed to look well-integrated into the design.

Price: Fair for the quality

There certainly are less expensive countertop ovens available, but the price on this seems fair for the features and quality of the product.

Competition: Breville Joule Oven vs. Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro vs. Breville Smart Oven

The Breville Joule Oven and the Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro are near twins, born at the same company and taught by the same programmers. While the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro has its master’s degree in smart cooking, the Breville Joule Oven has a doctorate and is studying further, since more recipes will be added to the app in the future.

At an even lower price point is the Breville Smart Oven. It has many of the same features as the others, but lacks the air fryer option, making it less versatile, but still a quality oven.

If price is no object, the Breville Joule Oven is the clear winner. It worked well in all of the tests, and the recipe database and autopilot recipes make cooking a whole lot easier. Still, price is always a consideration, so the final consideration is whether air fryer features are needed or not.