Ninja French Door Premier Air Fryer, Convection Oven, Toaster Review

Design and features

• Internal coating free from PFAS
• Control panel is easy to use
• 10 cooking modes provide versatility

The Ninja French Door Premier Air Fryer, Convection Oven, Toaster arrived securely in a brown cardboard box, and inside of that, a branded Ninja cardboard box. Inside of the main unit, the removable crumb tray was already installed. 

Accessories include the air fry basket, broil rack, sheet pan, and wire rack, along with an owner’s guide and a quick start guide. All of the cooking surfaces are PFAS-free, so there are no toxicity concerns. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) do a great job creating those nonstick surfaces that make cooking and cleaning so easy. However, they are also harmful, forever chemicals that have been linked to cancer, hormone disruption, and more.

The control panel is black with white text, providing a contrast that’s easy to read. It includes the following functions and buttons: Power button, time display (cook time), preheat, slices (for the toast and bagel function), temperature display, mode (cooking functions), dial (to scroll through the modes), and the interior light. 

The 10 modes/cooking functions are as follows: whole roast (for large items like a five-pound chicken), air roast, air fry, bake, dehydrate, broil, toast, bagel, pizza, and reheat. Quick note: the dehydrate and reheat features are included on the model I’m testing (FO101), but not on the FO100 model.

The owner’s guide is quite detailed, and does a great job of outlining the rack levels as they relate to cooking functions. For example, with the whole roast function, the sheet pan is placed on a wire rack on the bottom level. For toast, the wire rack is placed on the top level. For air frying, the air fry basket is placed on the sheet pan on the wire rack on the bottom level.

Performance

• 90-second preheat
• Cyclonic air technology eliminates rotating
• Most foods came out perfectly

The Ninja French Door Premier Air Fryer, Convection Oven, Toaster preheats quickly. It only takes 90 seconds and the appliance is ready. Full disclosure: when I’m not testing products, most of my meals are cooked in my Dreo Chefmaker, so I’m accustomed to just tossing food into it and pressing the start button.

As a result, I found it rather tedious to have to stop to read the owner’s guide each time to figure out which accessory I needed to use and which rack it should be positioned on. And, for example, when air frying, I needed to put the air fry basket on the sheet pan on the wire rack – which was all just a bit much, especially when the instructions indicated that I need to preheat the oven before doing all of this, so I needed to juggle these items while navigating a relatively hot appliance. At times like this, I would prefer a larger oven – with a larger opening – or the simplicity of just pushing a basket into an air fryer.

As a result of my laziness, I often chose to frontload the food and let it start cooking through the preheat process (fortunately, that’s only 90 seconds). 

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m also not a fan of having to take these trays/racks out of the oven to rotate. Thankfully, the Ninja French Door Premier Air Fryer, Convection Oven, Toaster uses 450°F cyclonic air technology to cook quickly and evenly, without having to rotate food, for the bake, pizza, and whole roast functions. 

During the testing phase, I enjoying using the appliance so much that I kept it on my countertop for several additional weeks after testing was complete. 

Since Ninja boasted about the appliance’s air fry abilities, my first test was to make chicken wings. The air fry basket is quite generous as you can see from the photo. I tossed the wings in 2 tablespoons of oil, ground black pepper, and some steak seasoning to coat the meat.

I preheated the oven for 90 seconds, put the air fry basket on the sheet pan, and placed the combo into oven. Ninja also includes a detailed quick start guide with recipes, charts, and guides. Based on the instructions, to air fry 1 to 2 pounds of chicken wings I needed 1 tbsp of oil, a temperature of 400 degrees F, and the cook time was 18 to 26 minutes. After around 11 minutes, I used silicone-tipped tongs to flip the wings, and then continue cooking.  They turned out perfectly: crunchy on the outside, and juicy and tender on the inside.

For my next test, I used the whole roast function to roast some marinated pork chops. I didn’t add any oil since I knew the meat would produce grease/oil when it heated up. (However, I did spray the pan with a bit of Pam nonstick spray.) The pork chops were delicious – brown around the edges, and easy to slice, and the slightly sweet flavor definitely came through. 

One day, I tossed some frozen parmesan-encrusted tilapia in the Ninja French Door Premier Air Fryer, Convection Oven, Toaster, and air fried them. The breaded fish fillets were also delicious – light and flaky.

To try the toast function, I toasted some French swirl bread. I placed the slices directly on the wire rack and inserted on the top rack. I prefer a well-done setting, and the bread was evenly toasted on both sides, and slightly crunchy. It was a delectable treat.

For another test, I put a frozen pizza in the appliance and set it on the pizza setting. I placed it directly on the wire rack and following the instructions on the box (which is what Ninja recommends). As you can see, the pizza was just the right texture: crunchy around the edges – light and crispy.  And the toppings were a mixture of creamy, tangy, and sweet, just an explosion of goodness. 

French Fries are essential when I’m testing. I air fried them on several occasions, and each time, they came out perfectly. Okay, one time, I was at my desk when the timer went off, and forgot to retrieve them in time, and almost burned some of them. But the other times, the fries came out a golden brown, crunchy on the outside, and delicious on the inside. I hate greasy fries, and I appreciate the ability to air fry them without any oil at all. In lieu of salty seasonings, I dipped the finished French Fries in sour cream (since I like to put sour cream on my baked potatoes).

No test would be complete without testing the ability to make cookies. I baked some Nestle Tollhouse cookies, and they came out perfectly. Slightly crunchy around the edges, soft on the inside, and the chocolate was gooey.

A few notes: Normally, I would have broiled the pork chops. However, Nina recommends broiling for melting cheese, nachos, and casserole finishing. Also, I don’t dehydrate food, so I didn’t use that function. 

I did experiment with some of the sheet pan meals. However, I found it difficult to evenly cook meats and veggies on the same pan. In the time it took the meat to thoroughly cook, the vegetable would be dry, whether it was chopped bell peppers, a cup of carrots, or even petite potatoes. Also, depending on the meat, the liquids would end up making the veggies mushy.

But as long as I focused on cooking either a meat or a vegetable, the Ninja French Door Premier Air Fryer, Convection Oven, Toaster did an excellent job.

Should you buy it?