This Ninja air fryer is the best gadget I own, and now at its lowest ever price for Black Friday
I finally gave into the air fryer hype and now I never use my oven.
Air fryers need no introduction, they have become a much talked about gadget since the cost of living crisis begun. In fact, air fryers are now used by four in 10 adults in the UK. In simple terms, an air fryer allows you to create tasty meals in the fraction of the time a traditional oven usually takes. This not only gives you back valuable time in your day, but also is more energy efficient to run.
Now that Black Friday deals have started to drop from various retailers, there's no better time than now to add one to your kitchen counter, as tons of different models are now reduced.
Right now my model is reduced to just £100, which is the cheapest I've ever seen it. The discount can be found at Amazon, John Lewis and Argos.
While the initial upfront cost is often not cheap, in the long run, they can save you money on your overall energy consumption, with Ninja stating that you can save up to 75% on your energy bill with one of its dual zone models.
Still deciding whether you should join the air fryer fan club? I've spent the past six months trying out the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer almost everyday to make breakfast, lunch and dinner.
🛍️ Product reviewed: Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer
⏰ Tested for: 18 months
⭐ Rating: 5/5
💸 Reasons to buy: Cooks food quickly, energy efficient and easy to clean
✋ Reasons to avoid: The dual drawer design is big, so you need a lot of kitchen countertop space
💰 Best deal we've found: The air fryer is currently reduced from £219.99 to £100
The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer offers versatile cooking with the ability to cook two foods, two ways – both ready at the same time. With six cooking functions including Air Fry, Max Crisp, Roast, Bake, Dehydrate, and Reheat, it gives you the flexibility to prepare a wide range of meals. Its 7.6L capacity can easily feed up to 8 people, and each drawer can fit a 1.6kg chicken, making it perfect for family-sized meals.
On average, an air fryer costs approximately 17p a day to run, in comparison to electric cookers, which come in at around 87p a day - it's worth keeping in mind that prices will vary depending on your energy tariff.
My conclusion? I now totally understand the hype and it's a kitchen essential I wouldn't be without (I have no plans to use my oven anytime soon). Here's the lowdown on why I think it's worth the splurge.
💸 Reasons to buy
I'm not the biggest fan of cooking. The idea of dedicating hours in the kitchen doesn't interest me much, I prefer to make meals that are either all in the oven or in one pan, taking a maximum of half an hour.
However, the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer has completely changed my outlook. When it first arrived, it looked daunting, with numerous buttons and cooking settings to pick from (although I've currently only used the air fry function).
The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer has six functions:
✨Air fry
✨Max crisp
✨Dehydrate
✨Roast
✨Reheat
✨Baker
The accompanying quick start guide is extremely thorough, with easy-to-follow instructions and lists of how long different foods take to cook on various settings. It also comes with a recipe guide (created by a chef) that features tons of helpful meat, fish, and veggie dishes to follow. And who doesn't love a bit of dinner inspiration?
£100 £149.00 at John Lewis £100 £219.99 at Amazon £100 £119.99 at Argos £119 £199 at Very £129 £199.99 at Currys Sold out at Ninja
All these meals were hugely quicker to cook in the air fryer and with a lot less cleaning up at the end too (which is always a bonus). For example, you can cook perfectly crisp bacon in just eight minutes. Chicken takes as little as 15 minutes, cod fillets even less at 10 minutes, and roasting potatoes just 15 minutes.
On just the air fry setting alone you have endless meal options, if you're after some inspo, these are a few of my favourite things to make.
5 of my favourite things to make in the air fryer:
🍽️ Mango and chilli chicken with Mexican fried rice
🍽️ Potato, pepper and bacon hash with fried egg
🍽️ Bacon, egg and cheese bagels
🍽️ Cod tacos with an avocado puree
🍽️ Spicy chicken skewers
The sync and match settings are also incredibly useful. Sync allows you to cook two different foods using different functions, temperatures and cook times, but regardless of the settings, both drawers will finish cooking at the same time.
Match on the other hand, cooks the same food in each zone on the exact same settings (which is ideal for batch cooking).
Cooking a whole meal, such as chicken and potatoes is so much simpler, as you're not constantly watching the clock, dealing with moving around scalding hot baking trays in the oven or conscious of cleaning up any spitting oil while it cooks. You can still take the drawers out midway through cooking to turn meat or toss veggies and the device automatically pauses cooking and restarts once you put the drawers back in.
Lastly, cleaning the air fryer was a breeze. Both drawers and the plates are dishwasher safe, however they can take up a lot of room inside the dishwasher, so I often hand wash them and find the non-stick design easy to scrub off grime and grease, even when left overnight.
✋ Reasons to avoid
The only gripe I have is the size of the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer. Given it has two drawers and a join capacity of 7.6L (which is able to feed up to eight people) that's not surprising.
However, for my small kitchen counter, it does take up a lot of space. You can either buy smaller models that cook for two to three people for as little as £69.
Offering four cooking functions, this Ninja model can air fry, roast, dehydrate and reheat everything from chips and veggies to steak and chicken. If you hate the time it takes a cook a meal, an air fryer just may be a game changer for you, as it can cook food up to 50% faster than fan ovens and uses less oil, so it's healthier, too.
While initially I was annoyed at the amount of room it took up, I've now become so reliant on it for most of my meals that I'm happy to compromise on counter space, but it's something to keep in mind.
💰 Best deal we've found
While the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer doesn't come cheap, costing £219.99 when full price, it's now hugely discounted, so it can be all yours for £100. This is the cheapest I've ever seen it, but it won't be around long, so we'd recommend snapping up while you can.
You can find the discount across Amazon, John Lewis and Argos. Meanwhile at Currys, it's slashed in price from £199.99 to £129, and at Very it's discounted from £199 to £119.
Shop now: Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer | £100 (Was £219.99) from John Lewis
Shop at Amazon Shop at John Lewis Shop at Argos Shop at Currys Shop at Very Sold out at Ninja
More Ninja Black Friday deals
Ninja
A Black Friday exclusive available in a stylish copper design, this dual air fryer comes with six useful cooking functions, two cooking drawers (that can cook different foods with different temperatures, times and settings), a digital probe, touch screen control panel, and various accessories including a pair of silicone tongs and apron.
This versatile appliance is both a grill and an air fryer - aka the ultimate cooking tool. The grill requires no flipping of food either, the integrated digital probe measure food temperature (which heats up to 260 degrees) to ensure its cooked exactly as you like it.
It has a further five more cooking functions alongside this, including roast, reheat, bake, air fry and dehydrate, and comes with skewers, a roasting rack, silicone mitts, a cleaning brush and recipe guide.
Snap up Ninja's popular multi-cooker with an impressive nine different cooking functions for less. Choose your base, vegetables and protein to quickly create a complete meal in as little as 15 minutes.
Shop one of Ninja's latest air fryers in this exclusive copper colourway for less, complete with six cooking functions and designed with a generously-sized square drawer which serves up to four people.
This air fryer is ideal for larger families thanks to its 9.5L capacity. There's two independent cooking zones, six cooking functions and dishwasher safe parts for easy cleaning.
Ninja even promises that it can cook a family-size roast in under an hour - one drawer can roast a 2kg chicken.
If you're keen to invest in an air fryer, but lack countertop space, Ninja have designed a two-drawer appliance that's 30% slimmer than it classic dual zone model. It can cook a meal for up to eight people, making it perfect for hosting or for large families, and has the ability to cook four layers of food in one go.
Complete with four cooking functions: grill, smoke, air fry and roast, this versatile gadget can fit up to 10 burgers, six steaks or two whole chickens (30% more than the NInja's previous design). It has a smart system that operates by continuously monitoring your food's temperature as it cooks. From rare to well done, the built-in probe will let you know as soon as it's ready to eat, so you can kick back and enjoy the BBQ, stress-free.
Equally as good as Ninja's range of sought-after air fryers, this slow cooker has eight cooking functions and features what Ninja call a Triple Fusion Heat system, which combines side, base and steam heat for fast, even cooking. And comes with a removable, non-stick cooking pot that's oven-safe for up to 260C.
