Hamilton Beach 31197R Countertop Oven with Convection and Rotisserie
For everything from cooking a 5-pound chicken to baking two 12-inch pizzas or a birthday cake, this extra-large countertop oven makes it possible to cook whole meals without turning on the full-size oven. Three simple-to-use control knobs allow for setting the temperature from 150 to 500 degrees F; for choosing the function–broil, convection, bake, or rotisserie; and for turning the unit off or selecting the cook time–turn the knob to the left for “continuous on” or to the right for 10 to 120 minutes of cooking time. Its convection method continuously circulates heated air around food, resulting in even heating and 33-percent faster cooking times than a traditional oven. Or use the revolving rotisserie rack to cook meat to moist, tender perfection. Other highlights include a power indicator light, a see-through window for checking on food at a glance, a stay-cool handle, and an easy-to-clean design. Accessories include two oven racks, a slide-out tray, rotisserie forks on a rotisserie rod (rotisserie skewer), a rotisserie lift, and a pizza pan. Not sure where to start? Hamilton Beach throws in a user manual with recipes for roast chicken, baked potatoes, meat loaf, pumpkin cookies, muffins, and much more. The countertop oven measures approximately 21 by 18 by 15-1/2 inches and carries a one-year limited warranty.
Top-notch
I bought this product at Sam’s Club the other day. The product is great and I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in a rotisserie. Having a regular toaster oven and a convection oven in the same unit is a great bonus! The unit comes with two wire shelves, two pizza racks (like cookie sheets but with holes in the bottom; great for Hot Pockets) that fit on top of the wire shelves, a 1″ deep backing pan, a wire rack that fits inside the backing pan, two rotisserie forks (for holding the meat on the spic), a rotisserie spic, and a rotisserie handle (for lifting it out of a hot oven).
Installation: A piece of cake. The unit comes packed in Styrofoam with the shelves and pans inside the unit; the rotisserie accessories came loose in the box but bagged in plastic. All I had to do was to wipe it down, wash the racks, and plug the box in.
Performance of the toaster oven: It toasts but boy is there a lot of room in here.
Performance of the convection oven: Never having used one before, I was surprised by the fans going off in the oven. But it did its job well cooking a pair of Hot Pockets to crispy perfection in just a little more time than the microwave. Homemade pot pies also cook very well.
Performance of the rotisserie: Great! I’ve cooked a beef roast and a Rock Cornish Hen and they came out so flavorful, tender, and juicy. The fat melts off this way and the drippings end up at the bottom. Make sure to cover it with a piece of foil. The unit says it can do up to a 7 ½ lb. bird, but I’ve only tried up to 4 lbs.
Cleanup: The bottom pan slides out for easy cleanup.
Overall I recommend this unit. Although I’ve never had a rotisserie or a convection oven to compare it to, it is world’s better than my toaster oven. It is also ½ the price of the George Forman unit plus adds more. How can one go wrong?
A Very Good Small Oven
Actual rating 4 1/2 stars. A half point deduction for door misalignment. The door doesn’t seal like it’s suppose to. It’s not really a seal but a much larger gap than allowed. Either the the frame or the door is slightly warped. A minor error, however, as it still bakes near perfectly and I didn’t detected any real heat escaping. I still consider the build of the oven very good.
I tested all features and they work excellent. Convection is very good and cooks much faster and is quiet. Much more quiet than the Toastmaster convection which was extremely noisy! This feature is also handy for quick warm-ups or making bread rise. The rotisserie also works very good. You must tie the the chicken up well, however.
The timer does not exactly stop on zero. It seems to go on 2 minutes or more. Again, a minor thing. Just compensate for this. It could be because the timer is also the on\off switch.
Using a drugstore temperature gauge I found the reading between the gauge and the oven off by about 25-50 degrees. However, everything cooks excellent using the oven degree markings. No undercooked items. In fact, this thing cooks much faster than recommended time in most recipes, sometimes much faster! For instance, on its rotisserie feature I found a 3 1/2 pound chicken could of been done about 15 minutes (or more) earlier than the recommended 2 hours! A roll recipe I found bakes about 25% faster than the recipe called for and I didn’t even use the convection feature for either! (Note: The oven degree reading and the drugstore temp gauge reading were the same when using the convection feature.)
One caveat: I did find the the broil feature slightly weak for red meats, (it more like bakes it) but it did cook the fish nicely (crisp skin) at near exact recommened times.
When using this oven over 400 degrees the sides and top of the oven gets hot, including the controls! I must note this oven has no insulation of any kind. It also has no oven light, but one is not really needed, but it would be nice.
Includes a pamphlet type cookbook that is only a guide, but it does give sample recipes for every feature. Enough to get you started on what it is capable of. Includes two racks, a roast pan with separate grill rack, and a aluminium pizza pan with small holes througout. For handy cleanups the bottom of the oven can be easily pulled out and washed.
To give you some idea of its size, it can handle a 12″ pizza, two if you have another of its pizza pan. (Though I never tried it). The rotisserie can handle up to a 5lb chicken. The oven a 7lb roast chicken. The oven interior is about 12″ front to back (not including curved glass door), about 13″ side to side, and about 10″ from top burner coil to bottom burner coil, with each coil about 1/4″ to 1″ away from the metal surface respectively. The roast pan that comes with it has an inside dimension (excluding the lips) of about 11 1/2″ by 9 3/4″.
Overall, a very good small oven for the price.
