Enter the characters you ninja foodi beef jerky below Sorry, we just need to make sure you’re not a robot. Enter the characters you see below Sorry, we just need to make sure you’re not a robot. Taking the place of six other kitchen appliances, the Ninja Foodi XL can handle grilling, air frying, and dehydrating like a pro.
Lindsay Boyers is a freelance commerce writer for The Spruce Eats specializing in food, cooking, and nutrition. From grilling steaks to air-frying French fries to making homemade dog treats, the Ninja Foodi Smart XL Indoor Grill is a multi-function appliance that completes any kitchen. Ninja is one of the leaders in the kitchen appliance game, so when I saw that it came out with a more advanced version of its highly rated indoor grill, I had to get my hands on it to see if it was worth the hype—or the thousands of five-star reviews. This version of the Foodi indoor grill has six main cooking features—grill, air fry, roast, dehydrate, broil, and bake—and, unlike the smaller version, it includes a meat thermometer that allows you to choose from several preset meat options. Although unassuming as far as looks go, the grill is fairly large—the dimensions are about 16 by 17 by 11 inches—so it will take up a considerable amount of space on your counter or in your cabinet. Even after developing over 1,000 recipes, cooking steaks still feels intimidating, so the thought of being able to pull off a perfectly cooked steak with basically the push of a button sounded really exciting. Nevertheless, I put the Ninja Foodi to the ultimate grill test—grass-fed filets.
Filets naturally have less fat than other cuts, and grass-fed filets have even less fat, so it’s really important not to overcook them if you want a good flavor. The thermometer immediately registered the temperature of the steak—59 degrees Fahrenheit—and displayed that next to the target temperature, which was 103 degrees for rare. After about 7 minutes of cooking and absolutely no smoke in sight, the Ninja Foodi beeped to signal that it was time to remove the steaks. When I finally cut into the steak, I was wowed by how perfectly rare it was, and I’m not easily impressed. I’ve tried to pull this off with other grills and meat thermometers but was never as successful as I was with the Ninja Foodi.
The air fry and dehydrate settings were equally impressive. With most kitchen appliances, it’s all fun and games until it’s time to clean, but things went surprisingly smoothly with the Ninja Foodi. I thought it was going to take a little elbow grease, but everything brushed right off and then wiped away quickly and easily with a damp sponge. The whole process took maybe three minutes.
280, which is more than reasonable for a kitchen appliance with so many high-performing functions. Even if grilling was the only feature, it does it so well that I’d still think it was worth the price. To make things even easier, all of the removable parts except for the thermometer are dishwasher-safe, so if you want to, you can give them a quick, gentle scrub with the included brush and then toss them in the dishwasher for even faster cleanup. The Ninja Foodi Smart XL Grill is really in a class of its own. I don’t know of another appliance out there that offers this combination of features.