Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL Review

If you're looking for both an air fryer and a pressure cooker, we think the Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL is one of the best options on the market.

Performance Comparison

Credit: Laura Casner

Cooking Performance

The Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL was one of the frontrunners in our cooking tests. It displayed some minor weaknesses, but for the most part it offers above average air frying performance.

Our favorite dish we prepared with the Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL was onion rings. Time after time the onions came out tender and fully cooked while the breading on the outside was crispy and golden brown. While you generally can't expect air fried foods to replicate the experience of deep frying, these got closer than most.

We were pleased overall with the air fried fare we made with the Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL.

Credit: Laura Casner

This device also excelled in making doughnuts. Here again they came out fully cooked with a nice crispy crust. There were some minor inconsistencies in the overall texture, but for the most part we loved these sweet treats.

Both the chicken breasts and the tater tots we air fried with this machine got a bit dried out. This resulted in a texture that felt more crunchy than crispy. We still enjoyed eating both, but other models achieved a slightly better overall texture.

Sweet potato fries received a slightly better crisp from this air fryer than from others.

Credit: Laura Casner

Sweet potato fries have long been a torture test for our air fryers, as it is very hard to get them properly crispy using such a technique. The Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL was able to get these fries crispier than most, but significantly lagged behind the top models.

As a pressure cooker, the Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL performed as well as the dedicated pressure cookers we've tested. We also had great luck pressure cooking things like chicken or brussel sprouts, and then adding a nice crisp to them with a quick air frying cycle.

User Friendliness

Overall we found the Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL to be quite easy to use. The dual functionality does require that you deal with some small idiosyncrasies, but in our opinion those things are far from deal breakers.

Devices that offer many functions are often plagued with clunky interfaces that make accessing those functions annoying at best and downright frustrating at worst. The Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL completely avoids this issue with a well designed control panel that allows for seamless switching between and adjustment of its various cooking modes.

We found the interface clear and easy to use.

Credit: Laura Casner

If you're cooking for a large family or you like leftovers, you'll likely appreciate the Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL's titular larger size. It offers 8 quarts of cooking space when in pressure cooking mode. If you're making an air frying specific recipe that requires the fry basket, that space shrinks a bit to 5 quarts.

The one unavoidable annoyance of this machine is the large crisping lid. It is permanently attached, which means it can get in the way when stirring or serving from the pot. It also makes the unit quite tall. In fact, it couldn't fit underneath the cabinets in some of our smaller kitchens. However, in our opinion, the functionality added by the crisping lids far outweighs the downsides.

Ease of Cleaning

Here again the Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL is generally quite easy to clean, but the permanently attached crisping lid does present some challenges.

We found both the pressure cooking pot and the air frying basket of this device to be quite easy to wipe down and get clean. Both are also safe to put in the dishwasher.

The crisping lid generally stays relatively clean when air frying. However, sometimes recipes will splatter or pop a bit, depositing grease and grime on the lid. Since the lid is permanently attached you must scrub and clean it in a somewhat awkward position, and you can't rinse off the soap in the sink. Again, this is certainly annoying, but we still feel the added functionality is worth the trouble.

The permanently attached crisping lid can present some minor cleaning challenges.

Credit: Laura Casner

Temperature Accuracy

Despite its larger size, the Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL was one of the most accurate air fryers in our temperature accuracy tests. At lower temperatures, our calibrated thermometers consistently measured the internal temperature to be within 5˚ of the set temperature. When set all the way up to 400˚ the larger cooking chamber did cause the machine to run a bit cooler, but we didn't see any negative impacts in the cooking results.

Value

The Ninja Foodi Deluxe XL is fairly expensive. In fact it is about the same price as buying both a dedicated air fryer and a dedicated pressure cooker. However, it does perform very well in both capacities. Therefore, if you plan to use both functions and want to save counter space it is a worthwhile investment.

Conclusion