Ninja DG551 Foodi Smart XL 6-in-1 Indoor Grill with Air Fry, Roast, Bake, Broil, & Dehydrate, Foodi Smart Thermometer, 2nd Generation, Black/Silver

This Ninja Foodi Smart XL is absolutely amazing. We cook with it almost every week, especially steaks, and the results are perfect every time. The steak comes out juicy, tender, and cooked exactly how we like it – just like a real steakhouse. Since buying this, we honestly don’t feel the need to go to steak restaurants anymore. It saves time and money, and the flavor is incredible. The grill function works great, heats evenly, and is very easy to use. Cleanup is also simple, which is a big plus. This appliance has become a must-have in our kitchen. If you love cooking at home and want restaurant-quality results, I highly recommend it.

This 6-in-1 works great. The heating element is easily accessible for cleaning. The removable screen covering the heating element is removable and you can easily clean it. This, by far, is the best feature this appliance has. I have had other air fryer and that is what destroys them over time is the smell and grease build up that you can't clean. The grill portion is easy and grills chicken and beef perfectly. This is definitely worth the extra money to get a higher quality product. I have not experienced any smoke issues, but I have been careful not to use any oils that would cause that problem.

This unit combines a grill with a convection oven. Be realistic. There is no substitute for charcoal but I am precluded by local law and my condo association from barbecuing on my terrace. The Foodi offers a good sear and SOME of the flavor you would get from a charcoal grill. I have had excellent results with this thing. If you do not have a dishwasher, you might want to think twice. There are a lot of parts to be cleaned. I have a Cuisinart contact grill that became all but useless. The teflon coating has worn off top and bottom plates and everything sticks like crazy - usually to the top plate. Replacing the plates is about the same cost as replacing the machine. Even if there were not a sticking problem there is no comparison between the two appliances. The Foodi is far superior. The Foodi has an enamel coating that is very slick and should be far more durable than teflon. You ABSOLUTELY need a meat thermometer - the external kind with a cable or bluetooth connector to the probe. You will never have satisfactory result with a timer. Overall this cooks much quicker than an oven or a conventional grill because of the convection effect. Cooking times will vary depending upon fat content and size. The mean thermometer (around 2 bucks) takes the guesswork out of the process. I made some fennel sausage last weekend. I grilled these without the thermometer. I managed to overcook the links. I use commercial grade hog casing (my poor mother kept kosher) and the casing split. On the other hand I grilled some double rib lamb chops with the thermometer and they were done to perfection - a few degrees lower than desired and then allowed to rest for five minutes. Seared on the outside, medium rare on the inside. On the grill you are limited to four temperature zones. If you roast you can set the temperature to any point like an ordinary oven. I have not tried it but apparently you can air fry a breaded chicken cutlet. We will see. It would be a real plus. I have a sensitive, hard-wired smoke alarm and it went off when I turned the chops. Frankly it wasn't necessary to turn. As advertised is sears all around. I will turn them the next time as well but open my terrace doors first. You MIGHT want to obtain kevlar oven gloves. The reason I said that is that they enable you to remove the components while they are still hot and wipe the down with a paper towel before the D/W. No need to use the brush. Everything just slides off. There are three parts to clean: The grill, the pot and the splatter shield. My definition of clean is however, er, ... stuff comes out of the dishwasher. There was something in the manual about soaking the splatter shield for 24 hours. Yeah, sure. I'll get right on that. Overall - unless you are expecting robust charcoal barbecue taste - most people will be satisfied. As an indoor grill I would give it six stars if I could.

tl;dr: Good device. Worth getting in place of a normal air fryer due to its greater flexibility. It is, however, still a convection device. Keep in mind when cooking things. This is a first impression so far only using it to cook a few things so far, but my experience has been great - if with a few caveats. For full disclosure, I bought this with my own money and while it was about $30 off. I received what appeared by all accounts to be a brand new unit with that new appliance smell, complete with burning off excess plastics on first use. First things first: this is a fancy convection oven. It's a convection oven that gets to very high temperatures and has very strong air circulation, but it is - ultimately - a convection oven. Unlike a proper grill, this has a fan that is constantly circulating air which means it will cook things faster. Keep this in mind when using it and make adjustments to prevent overcooking your food. As a general rule, the recommended times that come with the device are to make something Well Done. For this purpose, they're accurate, but you probably will want to cut a few minutes off of those times for anything less than that. The device itself is straight forward to use. It has fairly standard oven/air fryer controls, but arranged a little differently. There are different functions that effectively change whether the air circulates in the unit or not, and there are macro temperature controls (low, med, high, max) that can be fine tuned from there. Time is only in intervals of whole minutes, which is slightly inconvenient, but Fine. When initially starting up and preheating, this thing is fairly loud. It doesn't stay loud for long, but can probably wake up a light sleeper in a small apartment. Probably not a huge issue, but one to be mindful of when using for the first time. I've cooked london broil and salmon with this using the Grill option (regular circulation) with the recommended temperature settings (High and Max accordingly.) As I mentioned before, be mindful of how much you want to cook something. The recommended settings always err toward Well Done. As an example: in the case of salmon, I cooked it for eight minutes the first time and it was just a touch more cooked than preferred. At seven minutes, it was perfect. As for the steak, don't make the same mistake I did the first time and keep opening the grill if you have a standard meat thermometer. All of that hot air is just going to escape and it'll take some time to get back up to temperature again. In my case, I was too paranoid about the doneness of the steak that I ended up slightly overcooking it (medium-well instead of medium-rare) due to having to bring the unit back to temperature in order for it to cook the center properly. In short: get a quick read thermometer, or just follow the guide line of shaving a minute or two off of recommended cook time based on desired doneness. As for the results, they still tasted great. The grill surface does get hot enough to make a nice sear into the meat. Like any convection oven, the circulating air keeps the food from drying out and the cuts of meat were left very juicy and tasty. Cleaning is easy for as long as the ceramic coating lasts. This is the same caveat as literally anything with a Teflon (or similar) coating. If you're especially paranoid, let everything soak in soap+water before cleaning it off. The brush it comes with does the job, but any sort of dish scrubbing brush (NOT WIRE PADS) should be just as good. Overall, my first impressions of this appliance are great. It is far easier, quicker, tastier, and more convenient than frying off or sticking something in the oven to broil. My wife and I have replaced the air fryer in our kitchen with this since it serves both purposes. If anything changes, I'll update this review. Update: We’ve cooked a larger variety of things including turkey legs, hamburgers, smaller wings and so on. Everything remains great. It’s been very easy to clean as well with no signs of chipping on the finish. I will say I do hand clean everything, but it shouldn’t make much difference in the dishwasher.

We received our Ninja Foodi 5-in-1 Grill, model 301 yesterday. (I included the model number since I found it difficult to identify the specific models in various reviews) Tried ribeyes right away and they turned out great. We will do some trial and error with the cooking time to get them to our liking. Tonight we did brats and they were delicious. It is easy to grill since you don't need to keep watch to prevent them from burning. We used the recommended temp each time and will stick with the recommendations. The grill cooks well, is very easy to clean by just popping the pieces in the dishwasher and we are thrilled with it. Look forward to the air fry function, and expect it to work well too. Perfect size for two people.

I love this air fryer. I just wish the cooking instructions (temp/time) were correct. I have burned my chicken every time using the instructions in the Ninja manual. I looked online and the temperature and time is a lot lower than the Ninja manual states, so I’m not following their manual. Overall, once the times and temps were adjusted, my chicken came out nice and juicy and crispy.

I bought this as a returned "excellent condition" item. 1. Box was damaged but the product packaging was not open. There's one small dent and if I didn't tell anyone they wouldn't ever find it. 2. Very high quality piece of cookware, very solid. 3. So easy to clean we used it 2-3 times ish a week and several times a day on the weekends. We haven't used our grill in over a month now and we grilled a lot. 4. Smoke level varies depending on what your cooking and how long. When I say smoke varies it's not even close to what a outdoor grill is. The temperature settings are adjustable and the airfryer option selection are great but you need to watch it and you'll learn the amount of time you need to cook to your taste. 5. Easy to setup and instructions are very clear and precise 6. Stickiness is not a factor, depending on if you overcook you may spend a little more time cleaning 7. Set it and go do something else after you've learned what settings you prefer. The overall functionality is the best for a Ninja airfryer.

Listen this thing here is my best friend! It makes life so much easier. Easy to use , easy to clean works well, durable with plenty of functions! I am in love with this air fryer . It has high temperature options and allows for fast cooking!