I tried the smart Ninja Foodi air fryer and I cooked more food in it than expected, including a whole chicken
Air fryers have boomed in popularity over the past cover of years, and the Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket Air Fryer with Smart Cook System DZ550 is no exception to it. I've seen the Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket Air Fryer without the smart cook system come and go with stock, and cause a hive of activity during some of the most epic sales events - including Black Friday.
I'm a particular fan of the dual drawer air fryers since you can cook so much in them, either at the same time or at different intervals. When I saw that one of the best air fryers is now available with a smart cook system I just had to try it.
It's known as the Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer with Smart Cook System AF451UK in the UK and, other than the name difference and a pre-set for Max Crisp instead of Air Broil it holds exactly the same spec as the US equivalent.
Although it isn't the cheapest air fryer you can buy I do feel that it is worth the dollars. Had I been a newbie to air frying food I would particularly recommend it for its ese of use; the cooking programs are easy to navigate, and the two cooking baskets are handy for cooking family meals.
You will need to eat the food as soon as you hear the 'beep' though because there's no keep warm function, and you may find that you're having to frequently adapt the pre-sets to suit your cooking requirements.
Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket air fryer: First impressions
The Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket Air Fryer with Smart Cook System arrived fully assembled in a cardboard delivery box. When I say ' fully assembled' I mean that I didn't have to screw anything together, other than to slot in the crisper plates and plug in the smart thermometer.
Before I first used it I gave it a hand wash. The two, 5-qt non-stick cooking baskets and crisper plates are dishwasher safe but I prefer to wash these components in air fryers by hand to protect the non-stick coating.
When it was all assembled and washed I took a step back to admire. It doesn't take up too much space on the counter-top, but that's so long as you don't also have a microwave, kettle, toaster, blender, coffee machine and hob all on the same side of a compact kitchen. The air fryer can replace a microwave, providing that you don't regularly heat liquids, and it can toast bread, so that's two appliances that it could replace if you're tight on space.
You'll need to make sure that the air fryer has plenty of air flow around it, and that you can safely open the drawers without disturbing the weight distribution on the countertop.
Wherever you place it in the kitchen, though, it'll look just as smart as it has the ability to perform.
Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket air fryer: Key specifications
Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket air fryer: Price & availability
The Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket Air Fryer with Smart Cook System has a list price of $249.99. It's available to buy direct from Ninja, or through select resellers including Amazon, Best Buy and Target.
If you'd prefer to not have the smart cook system with a smaller cooking capacity then you can save $70 by opting for the Ninja DZ090 Foodi 6 Quart 5-in-1 DualZone 2-Basket Air Fryer. In terms of the spec it has five functions instead of the six but other than that it's identical to the review unit we have here.
Score: 4/5
Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket air fryer: Design
The Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket Air Fryer with Smart Cook System isn't anything particularly special in design, apart from the smart cook system.
This rather intriguing feature makes it possible to achieve the perfect doneness of various food types - from steak to vegetables - by simply clicking in the system to the side of the air fryer and inserting the probe.
The two drawers are another feature which sit neatly into the main carcase of the air fryer which can be opened / closed with a sturdy handle. The drawers feel solid and there's no resistance when opening or closing them.
Above the drawers is a digital display which displays six cooking functions. These are Air Fry, Air Broil, Roast, Bake, Reheat, and Dehydrate. For our UK readers, the Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer with Smart Cook System AF451UK has all these cooking functions apart from Air Broil which is replaced with Max Crisp.
Sized at 12.8 x 13.9 x 17.1 in (h x w x l) and weighing 19.8lbs it isn't much smaller than a microwave but, in my opinion, it looks a lot more refined in comparison - less boxy with more curves.
Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket air fryer: Performance
The Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket Air Fryer with Smart Cook System has six pre-sets to use, along with the flexibility to tweak the cooking time and temperatures. During the time I've had this air fryer on review I used 4-out-of-6 pre-sets; air fry, roast, reheat and dehydrate plus the Probe function. The other pre-sets are Air Broil / Max Crisp and Bake.
The difference between all of these pre-sets is the cooking time and temperature, all of which can be tweaked up to a temperature of 464F/240C with a cooking time of up to 1 hour 30 minutes.
The food type I used with the 'air fry' pre-set was frozen fries. The time set was 20 minutes, set at 392F/200C. This felt like too long on a high heat to me, but I gave it a go nonetheless.
The result was that the frozen fries were brown and crunchy, airing on the side of burnt. I tried cooking the frozen fries again later on in the week for 15 minutes at 356F/180C which yielded a much better cooking result.
Intrigued by the prospect at roasting a chicken I decided to roast a chicken. This is a food type that you often hear not to cook in an air fryer but, I don't see why not because, as I found, it is possible.
There's the option to cook with Probe or by selecting the Manual button.
You can opt to 'Sync' with Probe of 'Match' with Probe; Sync means that you can program each zone and pair the Probe to have them both finishing at the same time, whereas Match means that you set Zone 1 with Probe and use Match Cook to automatically match settings to Zone 2. I went for 'Match' since I was cooking the chicken outside of a meal time for review purposes.
If using the Probe you can select Small Preset or Large Preset, depending on the size of protein your cooking (chicken is large). Then, use the arrows on the left of the display to select what the protein is (pork, chicken, beef or pork) and the arrows on the right of the display to set the internal outcome.
I tried out the Probe but the pre-set to 'Roast' only went up to 158F/70C, and manual only went up to 185F/85C. This definitely isn't high enough to roast a chicken. I also found that when I selected this pre-set it 'timed out' once it had reached temperature so the chicken was still raw.
I got round this un-cooked chicken issue by consulting the quick start guide. It displays a comprehensive cooking chart which suggests to cook a whole chicken at 338F/170C for 50 mins. And this is what I did.
The results were good, albeit the meat was little dry. The skin was also crispy, which is always a good sign, and all the juices ran clear so it was definitely cooked through. I was just really disappointed with the probe, although it did recognize when it got up to temperature but this wasn't the right temperature and it wasn't for long enough.
The reheat pre-set was a little too high and went on for far to long, in my opinion. It was set to 338F/170C with a temperature of 15 minutes; I only needed 5 minutes to reheat a few slices of pizza, so I tweaked this. However, the dehydrate pre-sets were pretty spot on for air frying sliced vegetables. It lasted 6 minutes and was set to a temperature of 140F/60C.
To note, the time and temperature of the pre-sets were set at;
Max Crisp: 464F/240C for 10 minutes
Air Fry: 392F/200C for 20 minutes
Roast: 374F/190C for 15 minutes
Bake: 320F/160C for 15 minutes
Reheat: 338F/170C for 15 minutes
Dehydrate: 140F/60C for 6 minutes
As I did when setting up the Ninja Foodi air fryer for the first time, I washed the basket and crisper tray by hand to preserve the non-stick. These parts are dishwasher safe, though.
During the review process I measured the noise level of the air fryer. This was recorded at 63dB which is the equivalent to a 'quiet street' according to the app I was using, and I didn't think that was too loud at all.
A couple of things to note...
There is no 'keep warm' function so you'll want to be ready to tuck in to the air fried food as soon as you hear the 'beep'. Whilst there is the 'reheat' pre-set, I found that this isn't as convenient as a dedicated keep warm function, especially since it'll need tweaking.
And the batter on fish fingers had a tendency to stick to the non-stick. I didn't experience this when cooking frozen fries, vegetables or the chicken.
Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket air fryer: How Does it Compare?
The Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket Air Fryer with Smart Cook System is in a league of its own with it's probe and dual drawer making it very difficult to compare, but the air fryer that could tempt you away from it is the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket Air Fryer with 7qt MegaZone.
This is a new air fryer by the brand which can turn one basket into two with a basket divider. I, for one, haven't seen an air fryer which could do this previously so it's a revolution amongst the air fryer hype. As with the Ninja air fryer on test it also has six cooking functions.
There is also, of course, the Ninja DZ090 Foodi 6 Quart 5-in-1 DualZone 2-Basket Air Fryer which has regularly sold out during big sales events and topped the lists of many air fryer buyer's guides. It doesn't come with the smart cooking system and it has five functions instead of the six but, other than that, it's identical to the review unit we have here.
If you don't need a dual drawer air fryer, or one with mega capacity, then the single drawer air fryers would be more appealing. The toughest competition to NInja air fryers is Cosori. All of Cosori basket air fryers have single drawers yet they boast decent capacities; such as the Cosori Pro III which has a 6.8-quart capacity. These undercut the twin drawer Ninja air fryers by almost $100, making them a serious rival to the Ninja brand.
Should you buy theNinja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket air fryer?
Buy it if...
Don’t Buy It if…
How we tested the Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket air fryer
It was the only air fryer in my house
Used for two weeks to cook snack and dinners
The Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Smart 10-qt. 2-Basket Air Fryer with Smart Cook System was the only air fryer in my family home at the time of testing. This means that we used it a lot, especially at dinner time, as an alternative to using the range cooker.
I air fried fries, roasted a chicken and dehydrated vegetables. I didn't get on with the pre-sets because they either burnt or under-cooked the foods. I, therefore, tweaked the pre-sets to a time and temperature that I was used to when reviewing air fryers. These times and temperatures are also noted in the included instruction manual.
See more about how we test
