Cook 2 foods at once with this 6-in-1 air fryer that uses 75%
less fat. Enjoy fast, energy-efficient cooking with independent
temp/time controls in each drawer.
Review: pays for itself.... - The best thing about this product
is that it pays for itself through energy savings Since getting
this Ninja my deep fat fryer is now obsolete, my grill is almost
obsolete and my oven hasn't been used since. This product cooks
great chips but one does have to learn a little first. When
cooking chips it's critical that one folows the instructions and
washes the potato starch out before air frying them otherwise
they will burn. Next one needs to work out the times and
temperatures for different potato varieties as cooking times do
vary between the different types. Once one has a good idea of the
cooking times and temperatures chips are quickly produced in the
air fryer. Although the air fryer works well there are the other
options available; Roast, Bake, Dehydrate, Max Crisp and reheat.
As the saying goes, "practice makes perfect" and it certainly
applies to this Ninja. One has fun messing with this product as
one tries to find the best and most successful way to cook food.
Roasting duck breasts is a typical example. I have cooked them
with the Roast option but I have found that they cook best by
giving them 8 minutes on Roast followed by six minutes on Max
crisp to get the skin well cooked and crispy. As my images show,
this "compact cooker" roasts some great chicken quarters. The
same applies with the chicken as it does the duck, partially
roast the chicken and finish off using the max crisp setting
which operates at 240c and that is 10c higher than domestic ovens
so it cooks and crisps skin perfectly and quickly. I have used
this Ninja for toasting garlic bread slices and it does it much
quicker and much better than my Solarplus grill does so that is
something exceptional. As this Ninja has much smaller cavities
than a domestic oven it can rapidly heat up, that is how it
works. When cooking there is no need to preheat the Ninja as the
cavities reach their temperatures in a matter of a small few
seconds and that is where the energy savings come into play. By
not having to pay to preheat a large cavity domestic oven ones
uses much less energy thus one isn't paying the 30p+ per kWh for
an element that requires a 3.6+kWh input. If one has a cheap
cooker then it's cheap for a reason... it needs more energy thus
it would probably use a good kWh just to preheat the oven so one
can easily be paying 40p to 50p just to warm the oven up. A more
expensive cooker, like mine, can have triple glazing in the oven
doors thus they are much more enrgy efficient and save money when
comared to cheaper cookers. As the Ninja only has to heat up a
small space the food is cooking almost immediately and it does
cook evenly. I did mention duck, chicken and garlic bread but
what about roasting coffee beans? I did think about it and after
doing a little reading online I tried it. I don't advise using
this Ninja for roasting coff beans as it does become "expensive".
Many people claim that one can get a "dark roast" in six to eight
minutes, with others claiming it takes around 15 minutes. Well, I
don't believe any of them have actually tried it as even after a
good 1/2 hour the beans were only light roasted. To get a dark
roast will tale close to one hour at the highest temperature so
that becomes costly for a small amount of coffe bean. One can
invest in a domestic coffee bean roaster but personally I do
prefer to do it the traditional way, which is much more cost
effective. One simply puts the beans into a pan (frying pans are
good for this) or a traditional roasting pan that imported. Next,
one simply heats the pan on a high heat hob or gas burner for a
few minutes. Whilst the beans are roasting one simply stirs them
around from time to time. A light roast, like what the Ninja
produced, can be obtianed in only two to three minutes with a
dark raost taking around five mionutes. What the Ninja produced
in 1/2 hour would have taken me around 10 minutes and I would
have got two small batches of dark roast for my espressos. So,
this Ninja is excellent for cooking almost anything but there
will be the exception such as my fresh green bean coffee.It is so
easy to keep clean so that is a very good bonus One thing I did
note from some negative reviews is that some reviewers gave
negative ratings and claimed the product is fauly because "lots
of steam" was coming out. Well, I can honestly say that is not
the case. The problem is not with the Ninja but is with the user.
During my second use of this I seen some steam coming out and
instantly worked it out that the pan hadn't been insertred
correctly. When using the Ninja it is important to insert the
pans flush so that they are firmply sealed with the machione
otherwise steam will escape thus cooking will be uneven and will
take longer. As soon as I seen the steam I simply pulled pan
number one out a bit and reinserted it thus no more steam.
Another issue with those that cook with incorrectly positioned
pans is that apart fromcosting more to cook the food and not
cooking the food well... it will dry the food.The steam from the
cooking food is part of the cooking process and helps keep the
food moist but losing the water will mean the food, especially
meats, will go dry. Overall I am impressed with my Ninja and I
should have bought one much sooner than I did as it is saving me
money, it is saving me a lot of time and most importantly it
produces some excellently cooked food. One day I will risk it and
try to make some jam in it and maybe even dehydrate some fruits.
If successful thenit will mean my dehydrater will become obsolete
aling with my deep fat fryer. I am recommending this product as
it is made to a high quality standard, it works very well and
with the energy and cost savings this is very good value.
Review: Saw the show, bought the product - We've been putting off
buying an air fryer for quite a while, not being sure if we
wanted or needed one. After watching the Ch4 show with Denise Van
Outen we decided to take the plunge. We've had it for 3 weeks now
& it was an excellent purchase. It's a nice fit on our kitchen
worktop, the mains lead isn't very long though, so take that into
consideration. We decided to try something easy for our first
attempt at cooking a meal & went for chicken dippers & fries,
both cooked on the Max Crisp option. It was a success & tasted
very nice. It was a bit of guesswork at first with further meals,
mainly on the time settings. For the temperature we have kept to
what the guideline is on the packet of food we are cooking. For
the timing, we have used a method mentioned online, & that is to
knock 25% of the guideline on the packet, & this has worked well.
So, if it says to cook for 20 minutes in an oven on the packet,
then cook for 15 minutes instead. When using Max Crisp though,
the temperature is set at 240 degrees. The Max Crisp option
doesn't seem to be for too many food items, so most of our
cooking has been done with the Air Fry option which works very
well. The only other option we've tried is Roast & that was for
carrots which also turned out fine. We haven't tried Dehydrate,
Defrost, or Bake, so can't comment on those options. The option
to sync the cooking times if using both cooking trays is
brilliant. At the moment, some companies are putting cooking
times for air fryers on their packets, which is handy, but
there's a long way to go yet before they all do. I did read that
Iceland is rolling out an air fryer aisle for their branches.
What we're doing until everyone is on board is to keep a notebook
going with details of how we have cooked a meal. So, for example,
we have written " crinkle cut chips, 12 minutes, Max Crisp or cod
in breadcrumbs, 200 degrees, 15 minutes, Air Fry or steak pie,
190 degrees, 22 minutes, Air Fry ". Suffice it to say, once you
have the hang of the air fryer it is very easy to use. I should
point out that there are two of us using it, I'm not sure how it
would be for a large family who all eat at the same time due to
the amount of space in the cooking trays. Speaking of which, when
it comes to cleaning the cooking trays & the shelves that come
with them, again, it's very easy. There has been talk of needing
silicon insert trays or using baking paper but it is so easy &
quick to wash the cooking trays & shelves that it isn't really
necessary for those items. I would recommend buying silicon tongs
though for turning food & taking the food out when cooked. To
summarise, it's a great product, cooks food really well & does it
faster than an oven which should help with electricity bills &
it's easy to clean. If you've been thinking of buying one we can
definitely recommend it.
