There is something truly special about food that has been prepared outdoors, especially if you're using one of the best BBQs. Getting perfect grilled char on vegetables or a delicious smoky flavour in meat usually requires a lot of equipment and patience, but The Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker makes it easy to do both after a simple, plug-in set-up of the machine.
Following up from the sell-out success of its best air fryers, Ninja has proved itself again to be one of our favourite appliance brands, with this BBQ and air fryer hybrid that is compact in size and can cook large meats such as a whole chicken or pork shoulder. Even if you only have a little bit of outdoor space, cooking a barbecue for when friends or family visit has never been easier. Here's how I got on with the Ninja Woodfire when I tested it at home with a variety of different foods.
Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker Specs
- Type: Electric
- Wattage: 2400W
- Cord length: 2m
- Dimensions: H:34 x W:46 x D:46
- Cooking Dimensions: 28cm x 37cm
- Weight: 12kg
- Colours: Grey lid, black body
- Temperature Indicators: LED
- Temperature Range: up to 260C
- Programs: Grill, Smoker, Air Fry, Roast, Bake, Reheat, Dehydrate
- Accessories Included: Crisper Basket, Woodier Pellets
Who reviewed this BBQ?
Unboxing, assembly and first impressions
The Ninja Woodfire is packaged in a single large box that I was able to carry on my own with a bit of effort.. The outside of the packaging has images of the product as well as descriptions of all of the functions so you know the fun you’re in for before you even tear open the seal.
Once the box is open, you are immediately greeted with a Quick Start Guide and Recipe Book. It's colourful and includes a lot of helpful imagery and a range of recipes for each function for different cuts of meat and vegetarian options. There is also a safety instruction booklet which highlights that the machine is for outdoor use only.
Included in the box are also two bags of woodfire pellets and a measuring scoop, as well as, a removable grease tray which easily slides into the back of the unit.
The machine is really easy to get out of the box and is only packaged with a piece of styrofoam at its top and base and a small piece of cardboard on the side to nestle it.
Beyond that, there are two side handle pieces which are labelled with an “L” and “R” to direct you to which side of the unit they attach onto. The only assembly required was adding these side handles, which could easily be done by one person. The handles smoothly snap into place and required just a few twists of the provided screws with the turn-key tool which is also included. Attaching the handles took about a minute. The grease tray also easily slid into the designated slot on the back.
Inside the grill lid, an air fryer basket and grill plate are included. I was impressed by how large the air fryer basket is and the clever design of divots in the grill plate for the basket to securely sit into the raised grill lines. This also provides an easy way of knowing how to centre the basket on the grill plate so that the lid will close properly.
I frequently cook on large, multi burner gas barbecues, so I was instantly struck by how compact and easy to pick up and move the The Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker was, epically with the side handle design. I was thankful for this as the product does not include an outdoor weather protection cover so moving it inside after each use was required.
The Ninja BBQ also has a cooking function dial and digital screen for time and temperature readings which instantly struck me as unique technology for an outdoor appliance, but not conducive to being permanently stored outside without a protection cover.
The final step required before you’re ready to start cooking is simply plugging in the machine. If your outdoor space does not have electrical outlets you will need to run an extension cord from indoors. The extension cord is not provided but thankfully I had one on hand and was able to easily identify its compatibility with the BBQ because the Ninja cord is clearly labelled with its operating current.
Overall I was impressed by the minimal packaging, compact yet high tech design, and short assembly time required before I could start cooking on The Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker.
Cooking on The Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker
Grilling Chicken
In addition to complete recipes, the Quick Start Guide and Recipe Book included with The Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker also has an extensive chart of suggested cooking times and temperatures for each cooking function.
During testing, I grilled 1kg of skin on, bone-in chicken thighs. I tested cooking them on the HIGH grill setting for 12 minutes, flipping halfway through cooking time as the recipe booklet suggests. Cook time was easily followed by the digital screen time indicator on the front of the unit, and the short beeping sound which goes off at the halfway point so you know when to flip them.
For HIGH grill, the pre heat was only about 10 minutes which is accurate to the instruction booklet’s suggested preheat time of 8-12 minutes.
The recipe book cooking suggestion was accurate and resulted in beautifully cooked, juicy chicken with gorgeous crispy skin. The recipe book however, claims to be able to cook 2kg of chicken thighs. I cooked a little over half of this amount of chicken and found the grill plate to be full. Adding any more meat would have overcrowded the cooking surface and caused the cuts of meat to touch which may have impacted even cooking.
The grill plate heated sufficiently and provided nice grill marks but also easily cooled within 10 minutes after cooking so it could be cleaned right away. It only required being wiped down with warm soapy water which was a welcome change to steel brush scrubbing traditional BBQ wracks.
Overall, the grill function on the Ninja electric BBQ provides all of the crispy skin and flavour benefits of a traditional gas BBQ without the long preheating time and cook time or temperature guess work.
Because of the small cooking capacity, I wasn’t able to cook my veggies at the same time which I am used to being able to do with a gas barbecue. Thankfully, due to the Ninja’s quick heat time and temperature dial, I was able to easily change the temperature and cook my veggie sides while the chicken rested before eating.
Smoking a large cut of meat
I used the Ninja Quick Start Guide + Recipe Book’s recipe for smoked pulled pork. I followed the instructions for the Smoke functions to cook a 1.7kg pork shoulder which was easy to follow and detailed how to appropriately add the woodfire pellets.
I selected the Smoker function on the dial which runs an ignition cycle for the woodfire pellets but does not require an additional preheating cycle. Within the first 10 minutes, you can start to see and smell a steady stream of smoke billowing out from the side smoke box compartment. The smoke smell lingers during cooking time and after as it would with a traditional smoker, so you will want to ensure you are as far away from any open doors or windows into your house as your extension lead will allow while using the Smoker function.
It was great to be able to both grill and smoke the meat at the same time but I found selecting the correct function was a little tricky to navigate at first. There is both a Smoker setting on the dial and also a WOODFIRE FLAVOUR TECHNOLOGY button. There is also a separate Grill setting on the dial.
Thankfully, I was cooking from one of the provided recipes which indicated to select the Smoker setting on the dial, but I needed to review the Quick Start Guide to understand why the pork recipe using the Smoker setting didn’t include a step to press the WOODFIRE FLAVOUR TECHNOLOGY button. It explains that this button is used when one of the other five cooking functions: Grill, Air Fry, Roast, Bake & Dehydrate are in use.
Although the cut of meat I cooked was slightly smaller than 1.9kg that the recipe suggested, the cook time was slightly longer. After the timer went off for the suggested 4 hours, my thermometer only read 182F. I wanted to give it a few more minutes to reach the suggested internal temp of 205F and check it again, but one issue I ran into was that the machine only allowed a minimum of 10 minutes to be added which meant I needed to watch it closely and couldn’t just leave the machine to beep once ready.
It took an additional 7 minutes to reach the suggested internal temperature. Once cooked, I left it to rest inside the Ninja. The recipe suggests resting time between 45 minutes - 1 hour and that you can either leave it in the machine or set it aside wrapped in tin foil. I chose to leave it in the machine to maximise flavour from the smoky environment. One program that would be helpful at this stage of cooking could be a built in timer for resting but I did this separately on my phone.
After an hour, I opened the lid and although there was no visible smoke, a strong smoky smell was present. I couldn’t believe how beautifully cooked the large pork shoulder was. After removing the fat cap, the meat was tender and juicy on the inside with some delicious light crispy char on the edges. The meat shredded easily and was perfectly cooked throughout.
There were a significant amount of juices that filled the grease tray while cooking but the instruction booklet suggests lining the tray with tin foil before cooking for easy clean up which I had done. There was a little bit of residual moisture which easily wiped clean with a warm wet paper towel.
As with clean up following cooking the chicken, cleaning the grill plate after cooking the large cut of pork was easy with warm soapy water and a sponge. Even though it took a few extra minutes to cook than the suggested recipe cook time, with the Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker you can go from your fridge to a finished large cut of smoked meat in just over 5 hours.
Traditional smokers can take more than 10 hours plus pre-heating time and only offer this one cooking function. Although navigating the appropriate settings was initially a little confusing, with the Ninja, you can smoke in less time and cook in multiple styles with one machine making it a great all around outdoor cooking appliance.
Grilling Vegetables
The Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker makes grilling veggies and obtaining a delicious char easy. I cooked a batch of bell peppers to go with the smoked pulled pork and although the Ninja didn’t produce perfect grill lines on the pepper skin, it did cook them with a nice overall BBQ char.
The multi-functionality of the Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ is definitely one of the positive aspects of the machine.
After cooking the pork shoulder, I chose to let it rest inside the Ninja, but to save time I could have taken it out to rest on the side and just changed the settings from Smoker to Grill on the function dial and carried on cooking the veggies. It is great that switching between different cooking functions is really easy because the grill plate is not quite big enough to cook everything at the same time and it wouldn’t be big enough to keep vegetables separate from the meat juices if cooking for vegetarian or vegan guests. The recipe booklet provided straightforward instructions for 4 bell betters and suggested a 6-9 minute cook time, flipping halfway through. I really like the char flavour and found 8 minutes to be the perfect amount of time.
Overall, The Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker makes delicious barbecued vegetables quickly and they are easy to make before or after grilling or smoking meats.
Compared to cooking roasted vegetables in a standard oven, the Ninja produced very similar results but in a much faster time. Roasting bell peppers usually takes over 30 minutes, so even if you’re not planning on barbecue for your main meal and just wanted some grilled veggies to toss into a salad, heating up the Ninja is well worth it.
Using the air fryer function
The Ninja electric barbecue doesn’t require extensive time for coals to light or for grill irons to heat up from a flame. For the air frying function, The Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker only took just over 2 minutes to preheat to 200C.
I tested making cheddar and chive scones using the air-frying function and they were delicious. I was impressed I could make a recipe typically oven baked in this grill.
Usually the recipe takes 10-15 minutes cooking time in the oven with additional time for the oven to preheat. With the Ninja air frying function, after only 2 minutes of preheating, the scones which were slightly smaller in size were done in 6 minutes, and the scones larger in size were cooked through in just under 8 minutes.
Although I did have to set up the stand for the machine outside, overall I think that the additional set up time was worth it for this cooking function as the air fryer made them fluffy and moist on the inside but also extra crispy on the outside which is not usually achieved with a conventional oven.
I was surprised, however by how much the scones stuck to the air fryer basket because the finish coating on the basket seemed sufficiently non-stick. Although a little bit did burn and stick onto the basket, it easily came loose and any bits that didn’t crack off could be thoroughly cleaned with some warm water and a sponge without leaving any residue.
How does it compare to similar BBQs?
Compared to other drawer style air fryers, the The Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker achieves similar cooking results to the Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone AF400UK, the brand's bestselling product.
I found the wide rectangular basket and the shallow depth more user-friendly than the deep round shaped basket I’ve used with some of the best multicookers, like the Ninja Foodi.
In terms of BBQ comparisons, if you want an electric BBQ but the Ninja Woodfire isn't your dream buy, then you should check out the Weber Lumin, which is the perfect purchase for balcony grilling. And if you need something altogether a bit cheaper, the Original Weber Kettle is a BBQ that never fails to hit the spot.
Should you buy the Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker?
Traditional barbecues and smokers can take a lot of time to set up and get hot enough to start cooking. The Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker makes it easy to cook both small and large cuts of meat, as well as vegetables without long preheat times or extensive clean up. If you are looking for a multifunctional appliance that allows you to cook food with great BBQ and smoke flavours while enjoying the outdoors this summer and don’t mind investing in an outdoor protection cover, this Ninja is definitely worth your investment.
About this review, and the reviewer
As part of our commitment to how we test products that we recommend at Ideal Home, Alyssa tested this BBQ over several weeks and tried a variety of food and product functions. She was allowed to keep the barbecue after the review.
