5 Ninja Woodfire features that I can't live without
The Ninja Woodfire is a versatile electric BBQ and grill for your garden – and it's loaded with features.
Brits are rushing to buy the Ninja Woodfire as the summer sun has appeared and everyone wants to live their best garden life. I've been using the Ninja Woodfire BBQ for the last few months, and it's loaded with useful features.
The Ninja brand will be familiar because of its innovative air fryers, combi cookers and ice cream makers. The Woodfire family has a couple of models – there's the Woodfire Outdoor Oven (which is basically a pizza oven) and there's the BBQ Grill & Smoker, which is what we have here.
Now is a good time to buy too, because there's a £70 discount from Ninja direct as well as a £70 discount on Amazon so you can get this pioneering outdoor cooker for £229 at the moment. When it comes to alternatives, there isn't currently another brand which offers the same type of woodsmoked cooking on the go, however, this Tower Portable Barrel Grill could be an option for simple BBQs.
These are the top five features of the Ninja Woodfire BBQ Grill & Smoker that really help it stand out and will help you get tasty food time and time again.
1. The woodsmoke system
Using electric rather than gas or charcoal, the first thing to know about is where the Woodfire name comes from. That's thanks to a system that ignites wood pellets that you put in a hopper on the side of the lid.
When you select the Woodfire mode, it will ignite these wood pellets, drawing the smoke into the lid with the internal fan. The flavoured smoke is then circulated, bringing that smoky flavour to your food. It's not just the food that benefits – because the smell when cooking is amazing too.
Using wood smoke makes this a little more exciting than a normal electric BBQ and it's so easy. Other electric BBQs can use wood chips, but you have to put them inside the grill, meaning you lose cooking space – not so with the Ninja Woodfire.
The Woodfires with sample wood chips to try, but then you can buy more once you've decided which you prefer.
2. The interchangeable grills
Rather than a grate like a traditional BBQ, the Ninja Woodfire has a grill plate. This is a griddle, so has raised bars for those sear marks on your food, with a drain hole at the back. This means that excess fat can drain away, so your food isn't swimming in grease.
The entire tray is removable, so it's easy to wash, but it's not dishwasher safe, unlike some rivals like the Weber Lumin, because of the non-stick coating. I have been able to wash the grill easily, avoiding harsh scourers, and the non-stick coating still works – but some shoppers have found the non-stick coating coming off.
You can swap the griddle for a flat plate, meaning you can cook smash burgers, pancakes or eggs with ease. That's one of the things I really like about the Ninja Woodfire – it's really versatile. It also comes with a crisper tray, so you can use it to cook chips or other loose vegetables.
If there's a downside to the Ninja Woodfire, it's the size of the grill. It just about feeds a family of four using it, but if you're planning a BBQ in your garden, then you can only cook about 16 sausages at a time, so for a large gathering, you might need something bigger.
3. Controls and cooking modes
The controls of the Ninja Woodfire offer precision and control, and just like Ninja's other appliances, it's easy to set it to cook in a multitude of ways. The Ninja Woodfire offers grilling, smoking, air frying, roasting, baking, dehydrating and reheating.
You can select the exact temperature you want to cook it, whether you want smoke or not and the duration of the cook and set all these options on the controls. Then you press 'start' and it's off, preheating the grill, firing up the smoke system and getting ready. It takes the guesswork out of BBQ cooking.
There's an instruction manual and recipe book that comes with the Ninja, so you can find out exactly how long everything should take. If you want even more control, the Woodfire Pro XL and the Woodfire Pro Connect XL models have a temperature probe so you can cook more precisely, which is great for making sure that you don't overcook meats.
If you don't have a Pro model, I've also used the Meater Plus to check the internal temperature when BBQing – and having a separate probe means you can use it when oven cooking indoors too, another downside to the standard model.
4. It's great for family meals
My gas BBQ was huge. Firing it up to cook a couple of sausages was always a little excessive, so the size of the Ninja Woodfire is an advantage. Because it's smaller, it preheats quickly, and if you're only cooking for a family of four, it has all the size that you need.
The Woodfire comes in a couple of sizes, so there's an XL model that's larger if you want to feed more people or want to cook larger joints of meat or perhaps whole fish. It's 30% larger than regular Ninja Woodfire, but costs more too.
I prefer the smaller model because it's just the right size. I can BBQ chicken legs and thighs with corn on the cob for four people with no problem and it's large enough for a smaller whole chicken too, but it's definitely worth considering how many people you regularly cook for.
Any unlike a BBQ that uses open flame, I don't worry about leaving it unattended as there's no naked flame and no risk of a flare up.
5. It's so portable
Portability takes the Ninja Woodfire into a new dimension. It's small enough to pack into your car or camper van for a camping trip or if you want to take it to a friend to expand their outdoor cooking options on BBQ night - as long as you can plug it in.
There are big carry handles on the side, so you can move it around easily, so storage is easy, while it also has an IPX4 waterproof rating. It's not designed to live outside long term, but if you leave it out one night and it gets a bit damp, it doesn't matter.
You can buy the Ninja Woodfire with a stand and a cover. I haven't tried these and have used it on a garden table when cooking (it's clean when cooking, so the table doesn't get dirty) but a stand would benefit those who want to use it like a normal BBQ.
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