Does Ninja DT201 Foodi Air Fryer Oven Live Up To The Hype?

Ninja DT201 Foodi is one of the best Ninja air fryers.

It is spacious and offers the benefits of a full-size oven without occupying too much space on the countertop or heating your whole kitchen.

The air fryer cooks and crisps evenly; its toasting ability is also commendable.

We used this Ninja Foodi air fryer for a few months and here we have shared our experience.

Ninja DT201 Foodi XL Pro Air Fry Digital Convection Oven [Review]

Below is my in-depth review of the Ninja DT201 Foodi 10-In-1 XL Pro to show how this air fryer behaved when put through different tests.

| ALSO CHECK: Ninja SP101 Powerful Air Fryer Oven

What Do You Get In The Package

Ninja Foodi DT201 is a complete package with various accessories for an easier and hassle-free cooking experience.

Besides the Ninja DT201 air fryer unit, the box contains the following items:

• Air fry Basket
• One Crumb Tray
• Two Sheet Pans
• Two Wire Racks,
• DT200 Series user manual
• Roast Tray,
• Recipe Guide

Ninja DT2O1 Impressive Design And Construction

Upon unboxing Ninja Foodi, its design and construction stand out.

Its impressive design makes it one of the most attractive air fryers I have tested in my Kitchen Hanker studio.

The control panel is bright and easy to read.

Its presence on the handle is an ingenious idea.

This feature leaves maximum space for the see-through window to give you an ample idea about what is happening in the cooking chamber.

The control panel’s presence on the door handle also keeps it at eye level, where it is easier to read or reach.

The exterior housing is solid stainless steel, making the unit durable, stain-resistant, and easy to clean.

The interior is spacious, allowing you to cook for a whole family or just for a couple.

Like regular ovens, it can cook food at multiple levels.

Ninja Foodi Ease Of Use

The touch screen of the Ninja Foodi DT201 is extremely responsive; just a light push with your fingertips allows you to enter the desired settings.

You can manually enter the time and temperature settings from the ten cooking functions, including whole roast, broil, toast, air roast, and much more.

Upon selecting the cooking preset, the control panel will tell you about the rack position where you should cook the food.

You can turn on the light inside the cooking chamber, which allows you to observe the food and avert a potential cooking disaster.

| READ NEXT: Ninja Foodi AG301 5-in-1 Air Fryer Indoor Grill Review

Thoughtful Features Integrated Into Ninja Foodi

• The air fryer has a 36-inch long cord, allowing you to keep it at a safer distance from the electrical socket and wall.
• Regardless of its spacious interior, the air fryer only has one minute preheat time. Usually, air fryers of this capacity require at least four to five minutes of preheat time.
• A large fan at the back wall of the air fryer ensures that food cooking at different layers gets equal heat, preventing the need to turn or shake ingredients during the cooking process.
• DT201 has four power modes: Max, High, Med, and Low. The air fryer’s fan is the noisiest at Max power mode and barely audible at Low.

Spacious Interior Of Ninja 10 in 1 Foodi

Thanks to the 12 QT large cooking capacity of Ninja Foodi, it provides enough space to cook food in large quantities in one go.

The two-tier cooking allows you to cook foods such as whole chicken and fries together.

Fries can be cooked on the first level, and chicken can fit in the second, allowing even heat exposure to both items.

You can easily fit an 8 to 10-pound turkey or a 4-pound chicken in one of its cooking layers.

However, the large capacity of air fryer also translates into a larger footprint of the unit, requiring more space on the countertop.

Impressive Cooking Results Of Ninja Foodi

Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 digital air fry oven pro looks so good on the countertop.

One of our members wanted it to perform well in its cooking tests, so she can declared it as one of the best multi-functional air fryer.

Luckily, it performed exceptionally well during most of the cooking tests.

Here’s what we found:

• It performed exceptionally when cooking homemade fries and chicken wings, making them crispy while keeping them succulent.
• Testing its Broil function to broil burgers was a satisfactory experience. The crust of the burgers had a nice golden brown color and a delicious crisp.
• Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 XL particularly excelled at baking cookies, bread, and cake. The cake rose beautifully and had a soft brown top and a crumb.
• It beautifully roasted a 4-pound whole chicken, imparting it with a delectable crispy crust while keeping the inside meat juicy and flavorful. Using the whole roast setting from the control panel took us 50 minutes to complete the roasting.
• Accommodating 9 slices in the toasting tray at a time, it toasted slices pretty evenly.

Some Not-So-Impressive Cooking Tests

• The toasting result was not impressive with bagels. They didn’t brown perfectly as I wanted at the medium doneness level.  
• Ninja also did not perform well with frozen fries; they came out soggy and undercooked.

Ninja Foodi XL Pro Digital Air Fryer Is A Breeze To Clean

Cleaning the Ninja Foodi air fryer is no big hassle.

The crumb tray at the bottom collects all the food drippings and oil, significantly decreasing the effort to clean the unit's base.

You can wash the crumb tray in the kitchen sink or wipe it with a moist towel.

The accessories are not non-stick coated but high-quality enamel cookware.

Though dishwasher safe, you can easily hand wash all the parts.

The rest of the interior and exterior of the air fryer can be wiped clean with a moist towel.

Ninja Foodi DT201 Precautions

After using this air fryer, I noticed a few things:

• The air fryer’s fan takes around 30 minutes to shut off after turning off the unit from 400F. Per the Ninja DT201 manual, the oven takes this long to bring the temperature below 100F before shutting off the fan.
• Regardless of its insulation, it radiates sufficient heat through its body. So, don’t consider DT201 your standard toaster oven, which is generally not very powerful.I recommend using a silicone-footed bamboo board or heat-proof trivets under the air fryer before putting it on your countertop.
• During use, the air fryer’s door becomes extremely hot, soaring to temperatures as high as 282°F. However, the handle with controls stays cool; however, wear gloves for safety.

Ninja Foodi DT201 Vs DT251

The main difference between Ninja DT251 Foodi Smart XL and DT201 is the presence of a smart feature called Smart Cook System. It is present in Nina Foodi DT251 only.

This function ensures that the food items, such as meat and chicken, cook to the right doneness with the help of an integrated smart thermometer.

Both units are the same regarding capacity, dimensions, cooking functions, and other aspects.

So, if you rarely use a thermometer during cooking, you are better off with Ninja Foodi DT201, as it also costs less than the DT251.

My Final Verdict

Ninja Foodi has an innovative design and offers a lot of functions.

It is also one of the most thoughtfully designed air fryers I have tested so far.

The cooking tests of the Ninja were also mostly impressive, from toasting bread to roasting chicken, air-broiling burgers, and air-frying crispy fries.

Its dimensions of 17.09 x 20.22 x 13.34 (L*W*H) require you to leave a chunk of countertop space, but its performance is worth going the extra mile.

However, it is not one of the cheapest air fryers on the market, so if you can pay a little more for an exceptional quality unit, the Ninja DT201 is well worth your investment.