Is The Ninja Foodi Grill Worth Buying?

Countertop kitchen appliances can be very difficult to make room for even in the most spacious and organized of kitchens. Consequently, people have to be very deliberate about the items they buy, especially if they promise to be as bulky as a grill. Your best bet is to buy a product that performs more than one function and can help you save on money and space. The Ninja Foodi Grill is one of the latest additions to the Ninja Foodi Family. It performs a wide array of functions, including baking, roasting, frying, and dehydrating. But is it really worth the investment? Read on to find out.

Look and Feel

Considering the many functions it performs, it should come as no surprise that the Ninja Foodi Grill is a large, boxy, heavy grill – imagine a very large bread box or all-in-one printer. You can expect it to take up a significant amount of space in your kitchen and be very heavy to lift. Generally, the brill is not pretty, but it has a premium look and fill. Its lid is black, domes, and plastic while its finish is stainless steel. Buyers of this grill receive a cooking pot, crisper bucket, and grill grate, all of which have a ceramic nonstick coating. You will also get kebab skewers and a grill cleaning brush.

Functions and Performance

As mentioned, the Ninja Foodi Grill wears many hats and you can use it to dehydrate, roast, bake, airy fry, or grill your food. It is great for grilling steaks and burgers, air frying chicken nuggets and fried, baking cakes, and dehydrating apples, among other foods. Let’s take a closer look at how effective it is at performing these many functions:

1. Grilling

According to Kohl’s, this grill’s ability to cook at 500 degrees is ‘revolutionary.’ Grilling burgers or meat on this grill will be an absolutely thrilling experience, and the food will look like it was cooked on an outdoor grill. The Ninja Foodi grill is highly efficient and browning and crisping food. Although its strip steaks as not as impressive as those done on an outdoor grill, they overshadow many that are oven broiled. You will also not need to keep flipping your food unless you are making paninis and need uniform streaking. The only slight setback might be the eight-minute preheat time, but once the grill is ready, it is also very fast. The highlight is that the entire cooking experience is smokeless!

2. Dehydrating

The Foodi Grill also doubles as a great dehydrator and can help you prepare perfectly chewy apply rings. However, the dehydrator can only accommodate around 18 apple slices at a time to produce about one and a half cups of apple rings, so it might not be suited to bulk orders. The average dehydration time is about seven hours, which means you may have to leave your apple slices overnight.

3. Baking

If you are in a bind and really need to whip up a cake, you can use the Ninja Foodi Grill. It comes with a large enough cooking pot to accommodate an 8-inch pan. However, you should be prepared for a not-so-pretty cake and possibly a browned top. The crumb consistency and taste will be good, but the appearance might not be perfect. Nonetheless, you can use the grill for baking if you want to prepare a quick dessert at home and don’t care about how it looks.

4. Air Frying

Reviewed called the Foodi Grill ‘one of the best air fryers’ they have tested. The grill can churn out Macdonald-standard fries – whether frozen or fresh. Even better, you will have an easy time air frying your foods because the grill’s lid opens upwards, and you can easily access the crisper basket. This is an added advantage to the delicious, grease-free food you will be serving later.

5. Roasting

Lastly, you can use the Foodi Grill to roast small cuts of meat or pork. Expect juicy, tender roasts with a crispy crust. As an added benefit, you will not need to keep flipping the meat.

Ease of Using and Cleaning

The makers of the Foodi Grill call it very easy to use – and it is. The grill comes with a simple but thorough owner’s guide and grilling, dehydrating, and air frying cooking charts compiled into a booklet. While it is missing roasting and baking guidelines, its controls are very intuitive and easy to control. The digital control panel is also straightforward to read. Moreover, the Foodi Grill preheats automatically. Besides easy usage, the Foodi Grill is also very easy to clean. All of its removable parts are dishwasher safe, and you can easily remove the splatter shield from the top of the lid and clean it. The interior is also easy to wipe, although it does not get very dirty.

Warranty and Reviews

The Ninja Foodi Grill retails at $179.99. The manufacturer also offers a 60-day money-back guarantee and a one-year limited warranty. Customers have shown to be very satisfied with the product – it has over 5,000 Amazon reviews and a star rating of 4.8 on Amazon. In fact, most of the reviews are positive except for the complaint that the grill is very large.

Pros

• It does not produce smoke
• It is well constructed.
• It has easy to read digital controls
• It is a multi-purpose appliance

Cons

• It is very large and requires a lot of storage space
• It is pricey
• Its grill marks are curved
• Its grilling preheat times are very long
• Its cookbook is not very extensive

Is it Worth it?

All in all, the Ninja Foodi Grill is a must-buy for anyone that enjoys healthy, grilled foods but does not own an outdoor grill. It is air fry, which means you can say goodbye to the greasy mess of pan-frying your foods. It is also smokeless and way more effective at browning food than a broiler. That said, you should remember that the Ninja Foodi Grill is a large appliance and will require extra storage. But for all its functions and merits, it will be worth the hassle.