Unless you are willing to live without insulation or build an extra thick exterior wall, the answer is yes, you can only do this on an interior wall.

Consider a shelf mounted on the wall--one of those stainless Ikea ones perhaps?

Consider extra-dense insulation in that area?

Depending on the overall wall thickness, you ~may~ be able to remove the existing insulation and replace it with a foamboard insulation of similar R-value but achieved with a thinner overall thickness. We did this with a recessed medicine cabinet on an exterior wall.

you can bump your range out a few inches and build a pony wall behind it to have a niche that way.

Is there a way to figure this out before we start taking things apart? If I can't have a niche, I'll prob just go with a cheaper range, so I suspect I'd have to know that ahead of time.

Not to sound flippant, but how is a niche with some foamboard insulation any different than a window? Windows are holes in our walls without insulation and we're always looking to add more of those! :)

Also, my house is heated with recessed convectors - big radiators recessed into the wall. And every single one is on an exterior wall. So I basically have huge niches w/o any insulation in all my walls. It certainly doesn't make the house extremely cold?

I guess I am asking if it's not that it's 'not possible' to do an exterior wall range niche, but rather is it just not recommended here? Just like narrow aisles, DW in prep space, etc?

"How is a niche with some foamboard insulation any different than a window?" It has a much higher R value - 2" of foamboard is rated at R-10. The reason that I mentioned the thickness was that taking two inches for insulation works a lot better in a 2x6 wall than in a 2x4 wall if you want a niche. Part of the whole insulation factor depends largely on geographic and climactic issues - it's a big deal in Alaska, it might not be so critical in Texas. As I posted - we did exactly this with a recessed medicine cabinet in an exterior wall here in Alaska. You DO want some insulation - without it, you could have moisture/freezing issues behind the tile.