Ninja Foodi Dual Zone air fryer review

Setting up the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone air fryer

When the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone arrived, it was already evident by the box that this was a large appliance. However, though the footprint requires plenty of space, this is also a striking-looking air fryer.

The matte black exterior is accented with high-quality shiny stainless steel top surface and drawer handles. We felt this is a good-looking machine, and if you have the room, it’s one to leave on the worktop. It's worth noting that moving this fryer around may be difficult for some, as it is quite heavy.

Set-up is straightforward and takes just moments – a quick wash of the drawers and the crisper plates, plug in, and all is ready to go. The crisper plates slip easily into the drawers yet fit well and feel secure.

Enclosed is an instruction booklet and a recipe book. The instruction booklet is useful to read before cooking; there are clear diagrams and step-by-step instructions on the sync and match functions of the dual zones and using the six functions of this fryer.

The 15 recipes in the book are well-written and easy to follow, some with photographs.

How easy is the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone air fryer to use?

The touch screen was bright and easy to use, with independent controls for each drawer. There’s also a sync or match button which either cooks the same food simultaneously or syncs for food requiring different times, temperatures, or programmes you wish to finish cooking together.

Reading the instruction book is a must as we struggled initially to get our heads around the different settings but, using the step-by-step instructions, all quickly fell into place. As well as being a great air fryer, the Ninja Dual can roast, bake, reheat, dehydrate and max crisp to cook from frozen to crispy in minutes.

We especially liked that it was easy to see what stage the cooking was at in each drawer with the countdown timers, and there was no way to miss when the cooking had finished as the beep at the end was quite loud.

The weightiness of the Ninja made it feel very secure on the worktop and while opening and closing the drawers to check on the food; the machine did not move at all, thanks to rubber, non-slip feet.

The fryer stopped cooking automatically every time we opened the drawer and switched it back on when closed. Throughout the test of different functions, the body of the fryer never got beyond faintly warm.

Cooking results

We were very impressed with the chips from this fryer. We made both thick-cut and thin air-fried chips by following the instructions in the Ninja book.

Both were excellent; the fat chips had a lovely crisp coating with a soft middle. The thin fries were cooked evenly and did not dry out. Both styles of chips needed shuffling approximately halfway through the cooking time.

To test the sync function, we set up one drawer to cook a duck breast at 180C for just 15 minutes (slightly less than a chicken breast) with a five-minute rest before slicing and the other drawer with cubed sauté potatoes replacing oil with 2 teaspoons of melted duck fat.

The finished duck was perfectly cooked to medium and the skin slightly crisp and golden. The duck fat sauté potatoes were our favourite on the test and were served with the duck slices on a delicious walnut and apple salad.

Another family favourite of grilled sausages and fat chips was again cooked using the sync function, with the chips taking 24 minutes and the sausages kicking in for the last 9 minutes. The bangers came out perfectly – cooked through with a tasty, caramelised skin.

Ninja Foodi Dual Zone air fryer conclusion

The size and versatility of the Ninja Dual Zone air fryer make it ideal for both a family where larger quantities of food are needed, and for those wanting meals on the table quickly and easily, hot and ready to go.

And, for smaller households, this air fryer can quickly and easily cook two foods in two different ways, with them finishing at the same time. Ninja's claims of using 75% less energy than a regular-sized oven may be warranted, given the compact and quick-heating nature of air fryers, making this excellent for everyone and good value over time.

Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer AF300UK specifications

Food capacity: 7.6 L
Power: one cooking drawer 1200W – two cooking drawers 2400W
Weight: 8.2kg
External dimensions: 31.5 x 38 x 26.6 cm
Safety features: Auto-pause on removing draw, non-slip feet
Guarantee: One year
Pre-sets: Six

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