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.
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