We bought the Ninja Foodi a year ago and it has replaced our kitchen. After seeing the price tag we asked, is the Ninja Foodi worth it? When our friend first rang up and rainbowed out about the Ninja Foodi I was shocked because she never raves about products. They were using the Foodi at a friend’s place they were staying at and said it made the most amazing ribs. I could hear the drool cresting off their lips from how epic they must be. Although we fantasized about the Foodi I questioned if it was worth it since we already had the instant pot.
When our friend visited, around Christmas, treat yo’ self was in the air. We were at Costco and it was on sale so a bliss it moment arose and we bought it. Since then we’ve made ribs, bacon wrapped asparagus, air fried peaches, pressure cooked eggs, dehydrated orange peels and reheated all of our food in it. The Ninja Foodi has replaced everything in our kitchen except for the stove to make tea. There’s probably a Foodi way to do it but for now I’m not going to try and pour water out of that giant bowl into a cup. Can you add a spout to your Foodi? *goes off to research it* Nope! Not yet. After researching I found a pour spout for pots so I’ll let you know how it goes.
Since we got the Ninja Foodi we rarely eat out because food tastes so good at home. We also rarely use the oven now. By now the Foodi has paid for itself and it has years to go.
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- How the Ninja Foodi Replaces Your Kitchen
- Is the Ninja Food Worth it when it Comes to Price? How the Ninja Foodi saves you money:
- The Ninja Foodi: $200
- Different Ninja Foodi Functions We Use Weekly & Usually Daily
- Meat
- Ninja Foodi Functions We Rarely Use/Still Need to Try
- Yogurt Function/Slow Cook Function
- How is the Ninja Foodi Different from the Instant Pot or Instant Pot Duo?
- So is the Ninja Foodi Worth It?
How the Ninja Foodi Replaces Your Kitchen
The Ninja Foodi takes multiple appliances and puts them in one machine. Instead of having a pressure cooker, an oven, a yogurt makes, a dehydrator and a steamer as separate devices you have one. The Foodi is not a fridge though. You’ll still need a fridge.
We use the Foodi to reheat food as well. Just pop your food into the Foodi for about five minutes on the auto air crisp temperature and your food will be crispy, warm and delicious.
Is the Ninja Food Worth it when it Comes to Price? How the Ninja Foodi saves you money:
Average cost of a pressure cooker: $90
Average cost of a dehydrator: $150
Average cost of an air fryer: $100
Average cost of a yogurt maker: $30
Average cost of a steamer: $20
Cost of all the functions: $390
The Ninja Foodi: $200
Ninja Foodi Vs Instant Pot (or Instant pot Duo)
I had the Instant Pot and really loved it, but compared to the Foodi it is very tall instead of wide. Because the Ninja Foodi is wide you can fit more food into it, from veggies to an entire chicken.
Different Ninja Foodi Functions We Use Weekly & Usually Daily
The Ninja Foodi has several functions to it, much like the Instant pot. Before the Instant Pot got it’s own air fryer lid update the Ninja Foodi made the first pressure cooker that crisps. Besides being able to steam, pressure cook, make yogurt and sear/saute the Foodi can also air fry, bake, broil roast and dehydrate.
Air Crisp / Air Frying
When is comes to “is the Ninja Foodi worth it” this is the tied main reason for us that it is beyond worth it. The air crisp function ties with the pressure cooker function for how much it saves time and make life so much easier.
Instead of air fry the Ninja Foodi air crisps. This is the same thing as air frying but because it does not leave as much oil flavor as deep-frying they prefer to say air crisp. The function can crisp the skin of an entire chicken, after getting it juicy with pressure cooking. You can also make these recipes:
Air Fryer Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
Air Fried Crispy Turkey Thighs
Air Fried Crispy Turkey Thighs 
Air Fried Bacon Wrapped Asparagus 
Air Fried Zoodles Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets 
Whole30 Air Fryer BBQ Chicken 
Air Fryer Buffalo Wings
The air crisp function can also act as a grill. There’s a rack that comes with the Foodi so you can lay your meat or veggies on it and glaze them with BBQ glaze or any other sauce/glaze. Because you can easily lift the lid, glaze, then shut the lid it’s easier than grilling. Also, it’s easier because you don’t have to heat up a grill.
Nothing truly replaces the taste and visual of fire though. Let’s just be honest.
Air frying does allow you to use less oil than you would for deep frying. I love fat so I’m not into the health benefits of using less of it, but not having to spend loads of money to fill up a pot with oil does appeal to me. We usually use one to two tablespoons of oil.
Frying veggies in the air fryer is very very easy and is always delicious.
If you want just an air fryer Ninja has a whole line of them.
How is air frying different from baking?
Air frying circulates air very quickly so it is very similar to a convection oven. The Ninja Foodi does also have a bake function which is like a convection oven.
Because the Ninja Foodi is a compact space the air fryer cooks very quickly and so does the baking. You can usually adjust baking recipes by 25 to 50 degrees but still check it about halfway through as some things can cook very quickly in the Foodi. I usually lower it by 30 degrees for meat and around 50 for baked goods. Mostly though, we just use air fryer recipes because they’re already temperature adjusted.
Pressure Cooking
Pressure cooking has a modified lid that locks on over a rubber gasket to create a seal. The pressure cooker works by raising the temperature of boiling water, thereby speeding up the time it takes to boil, braise, or steam. Stovetop pressure cooking has been around for ages but I’m going to shine with my millennial colors and admit I’d never heard of it until the instant pot.
The electric pressure cooking functions allows you to never have to watch a pot of water boil. You can use it to cook soup, apple cider, chicken, turkey and so many other things. Bone and veggie broth are very popular for pressure cooking because it can halve the time it takes or even quarter it.
The epic thing about the Foodi is once your pressure cook food you can easily crisp the skin without having to turn on the oven. You can even make ribs that are fall off the bone delicious with grill-level crispy skin. Then, because you have a pot at the bottom, you can pour the meat juice into BBQ sauce for extra deliciousness. This is a Texas BBQ trick (where I live) and leads to us having some of the best BBQ sauce in the world.
You can easily search for instant pot recipes or electric pressure cooker recipes rather than just Ninja Foodi recipes. As long as you use the pressure cook function you won’t need to make any adjustments from what I’ve found.
4 Types of Pressure Cooker Recipes
Soup
One of the main things we use the pressure cooker function for is soup. It is so easy!
Check out our 4 ingredient Ninja Foodi chicken soup recipe here. The broth is incredibly rich and flavorful as though the cook has been simmering for hours when it really only takes one. You can change up the veggies from potatoes and carrots to whatever you like.
Apple Butter
Check out how to make rhubarb apple butter with the pressure cooker function by Real Ordinary Food.
Cider
Check out our instant pot apple cider here. We use whole spices to really infuse the flavor. Where the slow cooker takes four hours or more the pressure cooker takes only an hour.
Meat
Pressure Cooker Turkey Tenderloin by Blue’s Best Life
Ninja Foodi Functions We Rarely Use/Still Need to Try
Steaming Function
You don’t need to make any adjustments with the steam setting when it comes to recipes. When using the steam feature make sure the black valve on the top is set to vent and not to seal or you’ll oversteam it.
We’ve been planning on making mochi with the steam function. You can make all types of sweets with steam and even steamed cakes!
Dehydrate
The dehydration function is amazing because a dehydrator, in general, can cost you around $150. It would also take up more kitchen space. With the Ninja Foodi you get dehydrator trays and you can dehydrate fruit, veggies or whatever you please. Think about how much easier and delicious road trips will be. I have used this function once to dry out orange peels and it worked really well.
Yogurt Function/Slow Cook Function
Yogurt can take a lot of work to make when it comes to regulating the temperature. I did have farm friends that would just throw it in a hot cooler and let it sit overnight for truly delicious yogurt, but I’ve never tried that myself. The yogurt function on the Foodi means you can toss in your yogurt starter and milk, press the function and turn up with yogurt hours later.
I have not used the slow cook function just yet but I hear it works just like a slow cooker as long as you set the valve to open so that the heat can escape and the temperature is regulated.
How is the Ninja Foodi Different from the Instant Pot or Instant Pot Duo?
While the Instant Pot was designed to be vertical for space saving, which definitely works for soup recipes, the Ninja Foodi was designed with the air frying function in mind.
The Ninja Foodi is wider and since air frying requires the circulation of air you want a wider surface area in order to be able to air fry more delicious foods at once. You really don’t want food to be touching when air frying because you want the hot air to hit the entire surface.
So is the Ninja Foodi Worth It?
Is the Ninja Foodi worth it is a question that a year ago we would have looked for but now it’s just a fact of life. The Ninja Foodi is the most “worth it” appliance I’ve ever owned and we plan to have one for life.
