>New for 2019, Shark has added an 8-quart Ninja Foodi Deluxe to its line of pressure cookers/air fryers! Check out my full Ninja Foodi reviews to see which one is right for you.
<img src="https://i2.wp.com/pressurecookingtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ninja-Foodi-And-Ninja-Foodi-Delxue-Pressure-Cooking-Today.jpg" alt="Photos side by side of Ninja Foodi and Ninja Foodi
The Ninja Foodi is a pressure cooker and air fryer that can also be used as an oven, vaporizer, toaster, dehydrator and slow cooker.
Ninja’s idea is to give him TenderCrisp food from a single device. To achieve this, the Ninja has two lids: a detachable snap-on cooktop for tenderness and a non-removable crispy lid. (More on tapas in the reviews below.)
In 2019, Ninja launched the new Ninja Foodi Deluxe 8-quart. The new Foodi Deluxe has a new stainless steel finish. They have completely changed the user interface to a central use dial and a large LCD screen. It also features increased cooking capacity and a new yogurt button.
❇️ Just bought a new Ninja Foodi? Read this review to learn the basics of your machine, then go to my Getting Started Guide to Pressure Cooking on Your New Foodi. I will guide you through everything!
Ninja sent me both versions to try. Despite the differences in screen, many of the features still work the same, so I’ll start the post with my review of the original Ninja Foodi.
However, if you’re looking for something specific, feel free to skip posting!
- Skip to my Ninja Foodi Deluxe review
- Read about my experiences Trying
- Final Conclusion and Recommendations
the Ninja Foodi and Ninja Foodi Deluxe
The original Ninja Foodi and Foodi
Deluxe 8-quart are available on Amazon as well as in stores. Or, you can buy it directly from Ninja.
Original Ninja Foodi Review The
Ninja Foodi
pressure cooker
is easy to operate. It works similarly to the Instant Pot and other electric pressure cookers. If you are looking for Ninja Foodi recipes, all the pressure cooking recipes in my cookbook and on my site work on Foodi.
Get the original Ninja Foodi OP300 user manual.
Ninja Foodi 6.5 Specifications Room: 1400 watts, 14.3 inches L x 16.8 inches W x 13.1 inch H, 25.8 pounds 8
quarters: 1700 watts, 14.3 inches L x 16.8 inches W x 14.1 inch H, 26 pounds
What you’ll
love The Original
Ninja Foodi
- is well-made and sturdy.
- The Foodi has a very nice viewing window that tells you what’s happening in the pot, how much time is left, and suggestions for closing the lid.
- blue lights on the screen rotate in a square while the Foodi is pressurizing and stop spinning when it has reached pressure
- The instruction manual included with the Foodi was useful and easy to follow.
- A cookbook is included, as well as a cookery cheat sheet for commonly cooked items Included
- Cook & Crisp basket and a reversible grid that works in high and low positions
- nonstick ceramic coating on the pot looks well made (some prefer ceramic to stainless steel).
- The air fryer does a great job of crunching food.
- time of the air fryer counts down and turns off after the time is up, so you don’t have to stay in the room to turn it off.
- is a bit shorter and wider than the Instant Pot (I guess so you get more surface area for better browning), so you can easily place four cups of cream in the pot without having to stack them on top of each other. Ideal for desserts (like crème brulee) or for making individual portions (like egg muffins).
The
.
is a
. The
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What you need to
know before
- you buy The TenderCrisp Ninja Foodi pressure cooker is a large and heavy machine, so you will need to have a large space available to use it.
- crispy lid (air fryer lid) is hinged and non-removable. You need space for the crispy lid to be open while using the pressure cooktop. The attached air fryer lid means you can’t cook with the Foodi on a counter under your cabinets.
- The Foodi electrical cord is only 33 inches long, so you’ll need to be near a power outlet to use it. (The instructions say you should not use an extension cord.)
- The pressure release valve on the Foodi is short and a little more difficult to maneuver than the Instant Pot without putting the skin in contact with the steam.
- Hot air comes out of the back of the unit while fried with air, so you’ll need to place it away from walls and cabinets.
- Many accessories that fit in most 6-quart pressure cookers will be too tall to use on the Foodi.
- The beep at the end when time runs out is not very loud and is not adjustable.
The
Ninja Foodi Deluxe Review Currently, the
Ninja Foodi
deluxe is only available in an 8-quart size. Like the original, the Foodi Deluxe is easy to operate. The pressure cooking function is similar to the Instant Pot and other electric pressure cookers.
If you are looking for Ninja Foodi recipes, all the pressure cooking recipes in my cookbook and on my site work on Foodi.
Get the Ninja Foodi Deluxe FD401 user manual.
Specs: 1760 watts, 16.1 inches L x 14.6 inches W x 14.3 inch H, 26 lbs
What you’ll love about
the Ninja Deluxe The Ninja Foodi Deluxe
offers all the great features included in the original Ninja Foodi, The Ninja Foodi Deluxe also has the following new features.
New
finish and dial
The stainless steel exterior is pretty and looks more elegant and sophisticated. The improved user interface features a large center dial that makes it easy to set the time and temperature.
Higher cooking capacity
The largest 8-quart cooker comes with a 5-quart Cook & Crisp basket. I love that it allows you to cook for a larger group. The 8 ct pot. It is non-stick and easy to wash by hand. The 5-quart Cook & Crisp basket is ceramic-coated, dishwasher-safe and seats a 7-pound chicken.
You can see in the image below how much bigger the Deluxe basket is compared to the one that came with the original 6.5-quart Ninja Foodi.
New yogurt feature Ninja added a
yogurt feature
to the Ninja Foodi Deluxe. (My Instant Pot yogurt recipe will work well on the Foodi Deluxe.)
Other great features
The
two-piece grid is reversible and stackable so you can accommodate more food by steaming, roasting or air frying. The lid is easier to align,
thanks
to the white line on the housing and the pressure cooktop lid. This helps you more easily snap the pressure cooktop into place.
The Ninja Deluxe pressure cooker
has a black sealing ring, which helps it stand out from other pressure cooker rings. (This is especially useful if you have more than one brand.)
The beeps are louder in the new Deluxe.
<img src="https://i2.wp.com/pressurecookingtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Ninja-Foodi-With-Pressure-Cooker-Lid-Open-PCT.jpg" alt="Ninja Foodi with pressure
What you’ll need to know before you buy It’s
still
heavy
The Ninja Foodi Deluxe is still quite heavy, weighing in at 26 pounds. Since the crispy lid is not yet removable, you will need to lift that weight every time you move or clean it. The non-removable lid also makes it difficult to fit under the cabinets.
No progress bar
The larger LCD screen is nice. It says [Pre] when the pressure cooker is reaching pressure, which is great, so you know what’s going on in the pot.
However, it has three columns of flashing lights that do not correspond to the progress coming to pressure. I would have preferred a progress bar like some of the new electric pressure cookers.
Time
counts in minutes and seconds Another thing to keep in mind when cooking under pressure, the
screen counts down in minutes and seconds, not in hours and minutes like the Instant Pot and many other pressure cookers
.
Testing the NinjaFoodi When I received the first Foodi, I
had never used an air fryer before, so I also sent a Foodi to my good friend and one of the moderators of my pressure cooker Facebook group, Genene, to try. Genene loves to cook with her electric pressure cookers and has a couple of air fryers that she uses regularly along with her pressure cookers, so I knew she could tell me how the Foodi are stacked.
We both agree that it’s nice to have a single appliance that can do two things, but there are also drawbacks. The biggest drawback is that the air frying cap/crisp lid is not removable. The crispy lid remains in the open position while cooking under pressure. Genene felt that the crispy lid was in the way when he was using the function of sautéing vegetables before pressure cooking.
The
snap-cook lid is a separate, detachable lid, so you’ll need space in your pantry or kitchen to store it
.
Making
Ninja Foodi Roast Chicken
The first thing I cooked in my Foodi was a roast chicken. I used the recipe that was in the recipe book that is included with the Foodi. The recipe called for a 4- to 5-pound chicken. The smallest chicken my store had weighed 5.5 pounds. It was a little too tall for the Foodi, but it fit well in the crispy basket.
The chicken was too close to the top, and there were lines on the chicken leg where it touched the crispy lid.
The recipe required cooking in the Cook and Crisp basket. It’s great that the basket is included with the Foodi. The holes in the bottom of the basket make it ideal for steaming food under pressure, as well as crunching food with the crispy lid. My only complaint about the basket is that the legs have many cracks that are difficult to clean.
The herb-roasted chicken recipe asks you to add lemon juice, hot water, honey, peppercorns, kosher salt, fresh thyme, and garlic to the pressure cooker. I found that the tasty ingredients at the bottom of the pot didn’t really infuse the chicken with flavor. I added some fresh rosemary to the recipe and my husband said I could try some rosemary, but I couldn’t really try lemon, thyme or honey.
If I made the recipe again, I would probably make a compound butter and put it under the skin instead of relying on the pressure cooking liquid to flavor the chicken.
However, I was surprised at how crispy the chicken skin was after the 15 minutes of crispy airtime. The manual says that the pressure cooking liquid should be removed from the bottom of the pot for best results, but the skin was crispy even without removing the pressure cooking liquid.
My chicken wasn’t as tender as I’d like, so I probably should have increased the pressure cooking time by more than 2 extra minutes.
Make Ninja Foodi Pepperoni Pizza Pasta
There was a Pepperoni pizza pasta in Foodi’s recipe book. Since I also have a recipe for Pepperoni Pizza Pasta in my cookbook, The Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook, I thought it would be fun to try their version.
After pressure cooking the noodles and sauce for 6 minutes, top with cheese and pepperoni. Then you use the lid of the air fryer to melt and brown the cheese. The cheese browned a little more than I normally like. However, I liked that you can lift the lid of the air fryer at any time while cooking. The blower stops while the lid is lifted and you can check and see if you want more or less golden.
While it was great to be able to melt and brown the cheese in the same pot, the downside is that you don’t have as much surface area as you would in a 9×13 pan to spread the cheese over the pasta. In addition, it makes a large pot of pasta. I had leftovers that I keep in the pressure cooker in the fridge, so the inner pot wasn’t available to cook something the next day without transferring it to another dish.
Get my version of the recipe for Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker Pepperoni Pizza Pasta.
Trying other foods at Ninja Foodi
The first recipe Genene made was the baked macaroni and cheese recipe from the Foodi cookbook. Genene said it looked like a lot of liquid before Air Crisp’s 7-minute time. But it’s the perfect amount of liquid after air frying; The noodles absorb the liquid as the topping browns.
An interesting twist on this macaroni and cheese recipe is that you start with lemon juice and baking soda, cook it for 0 minutes, and let the noodles finish cooking for a 10-minute natural release. The noodles were softer than Genene likes, so next time I would reduce the natural release time to 8 minutes. Both she and her husband enjoyed the macaroni and cheese recipe.
Genene also baked cookies, Louisiana Battered Flounder and Frozen Curly Fries using the crispy lid; all crispy beautifully. He tested the pressure cooker by making hard-boiled eggs, and the time for hard-boiled eggs was exactly the same as in his Instant Pot.
Overall
, the Ninja Foodi is a great all-in-one product. It does an excellent job of pressure cooking and excellent air frying work. Genene and I were impressed.
However, despite these benefits, if you have a small kitchen, the Ninja Foodi probably isn’t right for you.
On the other hand, if you have the space and have been considering buying a pressure cooker and an air fryer, you will be satisfied with the quality of the Foodi. It’s nice to have an appliance that does both. The image shown above is the Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake from my cookbook. I love being able to pressure cook food and then finish it with a crispy golden coating without dirtying another pan or turning on the oven.
The Foodi
Deluxe with its larger capacity and easier to use dial is a great choice if you’re cooking for a larger family
.
Members of my Facebook group have bought the Ninja Foodi and they love it. There is also a Ninja Foodi Facebook group.
All my pressure cooking recipes will work well at the Foodi. Start with these easy pressure cooker recipes. My Introduction post has excellent information on using a pressure cooker. You’ll also want some cookbooks and accessories to have even more fun with your new Foodi.
Disclosure: I was sent a Ninja Foodi and a Ninja Foodi Deluxe to review, but all opinions expressed are always my own.
Are you still trying to figure out which pressure cooker to buy? Here are more of my pressure cooker reviews to help you decide
Instant Pot
Max ReviewBreville The Fast Slow Pro Pressure Cooker ReviewCrock-Pot Express
Pressure Cooker ReviewInstant Pot Duo Mini ReviewInstant Pot Duo Plus ReviewInstant Pot Ultra Review
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