See The Original Ninja 5 In 1 Grill In Action
Dont take my word for it, watch this quick video from the brand.
The Ninja Foodi 5-in-1 Grill is an excellent multifunctional kitchen appliance. It has a profound 1760-wattage rating, which can reach up to 510ºF . Moreover, its preheat time is only 8 minutes compared to a charcoal grills 15-minute wait time. Apart from being an indoor grill, this Ninja Foodi is also a fantastic air fryer.
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Ninja Foodi Health Grill & Air Fryer: Design
- Intuitive control panel
- Dishwasher-safe parts
This Ninja grill and air fryer was chunkier than we were expecting, measuring 11 x 14 x 17 inches/ 26 x 35.6 x 45cm . In addition, the configuration of the hinged lid means it requires a fair bit of clearance around the rear to allow it to open fully. Not being able to push it to the back of the countertop only contributes to the unit feeling bigger than it is. Of course, you can push it back when it isnt in use, but it still demands a good chunk of counter space.
The main cooking pot has a 6-quart/ 5.7-liter capacity, and if youre air frying then youll need to insert the crisper basket, which knocks down the capacity to 4 quarts/ 3.8 liters. For grilling, theres a heavy grill plate that sits inside the main cooking pot. Everything is dishwasher-friendly, but those without such an appliance neednt worry since a stiff brush is also provided to help with cleaning the grill plate by hand. If you want to store the Ninja Foodi Health Grill & Air Fryer away in a cupboard, youll need space not only for the appliance itself, but also either the grill plate or the crisper basket, since both items cant be stored inside the unit at the same time.
A quick-start guide as well as a recipe book with cooking charts offers plenty of guidance on time and temperature selections for common foods. Although note that there are very few suggestions for the roast and bake functions, so these will require some trial and error.
Cooking With The Grill
Arguably the best feature of this grill is the Smart Cook System. I’m a pretty good cook, but I hate babysitting meat unless it’s a Saturday evening and I have nowhere to be.
The Smart Cook System lets you put the thermometer in a piece of meat you’re cooking, input the type of meat and the desired doneness, and then the grill will shut off and alert you when the food is ready. It lets me cook a nice cut of meat without worrying about under or overcooking it while I tend to side dishes.
Every time I cooked steak on the Ninja smart grill, it came out a perfect medium-rare . I loved being able to flit around the kitchen to focus on other tasks making mashed potatoes, simmering peas, preparing a mushroom sauce while the Ninja did the work of keeping tabs on the protein.
The air frying mode also delivers in terms of performance. It produced ultra-crispy fries twice over and was incredibly easy to clean afterward. There’s enough room in the fryer basket to cook up to two pounds of food.
I used some of the other settings less frequently than the grill or air fryer mode, but they performed equally well. I used the griddle once to quickly cook up thinly sliced beef for rice bowls and it worked like a charm, though I preferred using the grill because it’s securely locked into place. The griddle accessory sits on top of the grill grates and while it’s fairly secure, it does move around slightly.
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Is The Ninja Foodi Grill Worth It
We think you’ll be impressed by this grilljust make note of its size.
Anyone who loves grilled foods but doesnt have easy access to an outdoor grill will love this Ninja. It browns food a lot better than a broiler, and unlike pan grilling, wont fill up your house with smoke. The fact that it can also air fry is a big plus. While it also roasts, bakes, and dehydrates, we wouldnt run out and buy it for those capabilities.
You have to keep in mind that youll need a large space in your kitchen or a nearby pantry to accommodate this Foodibut for good grilling, its worth the storage.
Heating Up The Ninja Foodi Grill
You can get the Ninja Foodi Grillstarted by selecting the cooking function youd like and set your timer. You can also adjust temperatures on the display panel as well. Once programmed the grill will begin to pre-heat. Once you pick your cooking function, temperature and time, the unit will begin to pre-heat. Higher temperatures will take up to approximately 8 minutes to heat up. This is a perfect time to assemble ingredients, set the table or finish cleaning some dirty dishes.
You have a choice to grill at 4 different preset temps for grilling:
Temperatures can be set much lower if you are performing other functions like air crisping, baking or dehydrating.
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Is The Ninja 5 In 1 Indoor Grill Easy To Clean
Compared to an outdoor grill, this Ninja Foodi is definitely easier to clean. However, compared to standard kitchen cleanup, its still a bit cumbersome.
Heres the deal:
The removable parts are all dishwasher safe, yet I dont suggest it. The reason being, the ceramic coating can get chipped pretty quicklyeven if you dont use the sanitize function.
With that said, you should also use plastic or silicone tongs when cooking with the Ninja Foodi 5 in 1 Grill. Just like a non-stick pan, this is to prevent any scratches.
Anyway, heres my tip on how to clean the Ninja AG301:
Once youre done cooking, pull the lid up and wait for it to cool down. When its warm enough to touch, thats the time to clean.
First, remove the splatter shield, cooking pot, and crisp basket or grill grate. Then, rinse it with running water. With a soapy Scotch-Brite, scrub it with the soft spongy side.
For the splatter shield, you can use the opposite side of the Scotch-Brite Or even better, use the brush that the Ninja Foodi Grill comes with.
If theres any hard-to-remove food residue or grease, soak it in warm soapy water for a couple of hours or overnight. Itll be easier to clean the day after, especially the splatter shield.
As for the main unit, you can simply wipe it with a damp cloth.
How Do I Know When My Steak Is Done How Long To Cook Steak In Ninja Foodi
Theres nothing quite like a perfect steak. Its something that takes time and practice to get just right, but its definitely worth the effort. So, how do you know when your steak is done? Well, there are a few things to look for.
The only way that you truly know when your steak is done, is by using a meat thermometer. Insert the meat thermometer into the thickest part of the steak. When it reads:
150 degrees F Medium-Well160 degrees F Well Done
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Ninja Foodi Health Grill & Air Fryer Price And Availability
- List price: £199.99/ $229.99 / AU$399.99
As mentioned above, the Ninja Foodi Health Grill & Air Fryer is known as the Ninja Foodi 5-in-1 Indoor Grill in the US or the Ninja Foodi Airgrill in Australia. You can buy it direct from Ninja and the price is similar to Ninja’s other large-capacity air fryers. However, with this model you also get the ability to grill indoors as well as bake, dehydrate and roast.
Ninja Ag301 Air Fryer Reviews
The Ninja Foodi AG301 Indoor Grill and Air Fryer may be the most expensive option among our best indoor grills, but there’s a good reason for that. Not only does it expand your cooking options with the included air fryer feature, but the grill itself offers excellent searing up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. It even matches the BTU cooking power of outdoor grills, so it’s a viable option for serious grillers who are looking for a faster option or something they can use year-round without setting off any smoke alarms. Overall, the Ninja Foodi Indoor Grill and Air Fryer offers a great grilling experience and combines it with an air fryer which expands the cooking capabilities so you can grill, fry, bake, roast and dehydrate all from one unit.
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Ninja Foodi Air Fryer Chicken Wings Recipe
This post may contain affiliate links to products I use and highly recommend. You can read my full disclosure .
Before air fryers, crispy chicken wings could only happen with deep frying. But, this 30-minute Ninja Foodi Air Fryer Fried Chicken Wings recipe uses a drizzle of oil and an easy seasoning mix to make fried chicken wings without covering them in breading, flour or oil. Includes tips to make frozen wings in an air fryer. This recipe can also be used to make crispy chicken wings in the oven.
Ninja Foodi Health Grill & Air Fryer: Performance
- Plenty of space to spread out food when air frying
- Bar marks from grill are curved not straight
- Foods cook and brown evenly
Using this air fryer is slightly different to a standard air fryer with a pull-out basket. Instead, the crisper basket here drops into the appliance you access food by lifting the top lid. The set-up is no better or worse than other air fryers, but its a bit trickier to shake food mid-cooking, since youll have to lift out the hot crisper basket in order to do so.
To test out the air fry function, we cooked up a batch of frozen thick-cut fries. We set the temperature to 360oF / 180oC, allowing the cooker to preheat with the crisper basket inside. This took just three minutes. Once hot, the Ninja Foodi Health Grill & Air Fryer prompted us to add the food and automatically started the countdown timer on closing the lid. Theres no reminder to shake or turn food during air frying, but we checked it half way through, lifting out the basket with oven gloves to give the fries a shake. After 20 minutes, the resulting fries were crisp, golden and perfectly cooked. Not only did they taste great, but they cooked faster than the 28 minutes they would have taken in an oven.
Cleaning the cooking pot and basket is easy thanks to the non-stick coating, or you can pop it in the dishwasher. The grill plate is a little more fiddly to wash by hand, but its made easier by using the brush thats supplied by Ninja.
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The Major Benefits: Who Needs The Ninja Foodi Grill
Even if you already have an outdoor grill, do you always feel like firing it up? Sometimes it can be a hassle especially if youre only making a small quantity of food. What about when the weather isnt ideal or youve run out of gas or charcoal briquettes? And the clean up can be a drag. This is where the Ninja Foodi Grill comes in. It makes perfectly grilled food without having to plan or worry about your eyebrows burning off or if theres a storm brewing. You can make delicious grilled dishes anytime you like, in any quantity, any time of year. Its perfect for singles, couples and would make a great interactive cooking experience to use at your family or holiday parties.
The Ninja Foodi Grill grills meats that are fresh, marinated and even frozen. You dont have to worry about defrosting! Every time youll get perfectly grilled steaks and super juicy burgers.
Design: Attractive But Big And Boxy
With an all-black and stainless steel exterior, the Foodi grill should fit right in most kitchens. Its size, on the other hand, may be tough for some kitchens to accommodate. Its big and boxy, measuring about 17 inches long by 14 inches wide and 11 inches high. At first glance, we werent sure there was enough space to clear our cabinets with the lid open it did, but barely. Weighing in just under 15 pounds, its hefty enough that we wouldnt want to lift it out of a cabinet, so wed recommend keeping it where you plan to use it if space allows.
The cooking accessoriescooking pot, grill grate, and crisper basketare ceramic nonstick-coated and free from potentially harmful PTFE/PFOA chemicals. The cookware pieces feel quality-made, durable, and heavy-dutyespecially the grill grate.
The heat is extremely powerful and cooks food very quickly, so you cant really set it and forget it.
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Is The Ninja Foodi Grill Easy To Use And Clean
The Foodi is well-designed, and all removable parts are dishwasher safe.
The digital control panel on the grill is well designed and easy to read.
We love the fact that the grill preheats automatically, but depending on the setting, the preheat time can be over eight minutes.
In the top of the lid, theres a splatter shield that needs to be popped out after each use and cleaned. Luckily, all of the removable parts can go in the dishwasher. The interior and exterior of the machine dont get particularly dirty and are easy to wipe clean.
The Ninja Foodi grill comes with a very thorough and easy-to-understand owners guide, as well as a booklet that contains recipes and cooking charts for grilling, air frying, and dehydrating. The only things its missing are guidelines for baking and roasting.
Features: Cyclonic Grilling Technology
The Foodi packs some serious heat that enables it to mimic the cooking results youd get from a traditional grill. A top-down heat source produces temperatures up to 500 degrees, and a powerful fan circulates the hot air to cook food quickly and evenly with grill-like results Ninja calls this combination its Cyclonic Grilling Technology.
The grill also features a smoke control system that lets you cook at high temperatures without filling the kitchen with smoke. A metal mesh smoke screen snaps in over the heating element to help contain grease splatter and reduce smoke.
The control panel has intuitive, one-touch buttons to power the unit on and off, select your cooking function, and set cooking time and temperature anywhere from 105 to 500 degrees. You can choose between four preset temperatures when grilling: low, medium, high, and max. A cooking guide is included to help you select the best settings for whatever youre grilling, which we used to base all our cooking times and temperatures.
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Should You Buy The Ninja Foodi Ag301 Indoor Grill And Air Fryer
While the Ninja Foodi Indoor Grill and Air Fryer is much more expensive than other grills on the market, the extra cost is worth it if you want a quality grill that is more than just a single use. It’s also a great option for the enthusiastic outdoor grill chef who is looking for something to tide them over the colder months.
But if you just want to grill, there are other options that will do the job nicely and save you a lot of money. And it’s smaller in size, so it’s perfect for storage. And it offers great searing power, too.
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How Easy Is It To Use
The control panel is touchscreen and intuitive to use, displaying the pre-set temperatures and timings of the selected function. Both elements are adjustable if you want to customise.
Once set, the machine preheats quickly then alerts you when it’s time to add the food. The crisper basket has a 3.8L capacity, which, in testing, comfortably cooked 800g of fries enough for two.
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How Easy Is It To Build
Alongside the grill unit in the box is a built-in digital cooking probe for checking the internal temperature of meat joints, a non-stick ceramic-coated cooking pot, crisper basket and grill plate with handles .
A cleaning brush is provided, although all removable components rinse off cleanly in hot soapy water. Theres also an instruction booklet and inspiration guide offering recipes for the grill and air fryer functions.
Ninja Foodi Vs Power Airfryer 360
Another popular multi-cooker is Emeril Lagasses Power AirFryer 360. Its more expensive at $300 and bigger than the Foodi, with an all stainless steel design that looks and functions like a large toaster oven. Instead of placing food inside of a pot, food is arranged on racks that slide into the cooker, and there are heating elements located in the top and bottom of the cooker. Cooking functions include air fry, toast, bagel, pizza, bake, roast, broil, rotisserie, slow cook, reheat, dehydrate, and warm. Noticeably absent is the ability to grill, but you have the added functions of toasting and rotisserie . In our review, we found it was too large to easily store, very noisy, and produced decent cooking results, but nothing that blew us away.
Where the Foodi is primarily marketed as an indoor grill, the Power AirFryer 360 is obviously marketed as an air fryer. They differ in their cooking functionality, so which appliance you choose depends on the type of cooking you plan to do. If you want to grill along with air fry, its a no-brainer to choose the Foodi. If you have more of a need to toast and reheat, wed go with Emerils cooker.
Yes, buy it if you love grilled food.
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