I’ve been a fan of Airfryers ever since they came out. Using an Airfryer has helped me a lot in cutting down the calories and enjoying what would usually be fried food, guilt-free.
However, capacity has always been an issue. While there are now some large capacity air fryers, you still have to put all your food in the same single basket, even if they have different cook time. And if you want to prepare several food in large capacity, that would mean you’ll have to cook them back to back.
Ninja has introduced an air fryer design that might just be the answer to these problems. The Ninja Foodi DZ201 Airfryer has TWO separate cooking baskets, with two individual temperature and control options. Which means, you can cook two different things at the same time, but set time and temperature for each one individually.
Features of Ninja Foodi 2-Basket Air Fryer
- 2 INDEPENDENT BASKETS: The original Air Fryer with 2 independent baskets, the XL air fryer lets you cook 2 foods, 2 ways, at the same time, eliminating back-to-back cooking like a traditional single-basket air fryer.
- SMART FINISH & MATCH COOK: DualZone Technology allows you to choose between the Smart Finish feature, which unlocks cooking 2 foods 2 ways that finish at the same time, and the and a Match Cook button to easily copy settings across zones for full 8-qt capacity.
- 6-IN-1 FUNCTIONALITY: Includes 6 versatile cooking programs: Air Fry, Air Broil, Roast, Bake, Reheat, and Dehydrate. The baskets can be washed in the dishwasher or by hand.
- XL CAPACITY: The 8-quart air fryer capacity lets you fit mains and sides at the same time for making quick family meals, or up to 4 lbs. of French fries or chicken wings.
- SEPARATE HEATING ZONES: 2 independent 4-quart zones have their own cooking baskets, cyclonic fans, and rapid heaters.
The selling point of this air fryer is the two baskets, without a doubt. As I write this, there are no other air fryers in the market with two independent baskets. And not only that, but each basket has it’s own custom time and temperature settings. This is very handy for anyone who has ever used an air fryer to prepare an entire meal and had to wait for each food item to finish to start the next one.
The Ninja Foodi DZ201 has 6 preset functions:
Air fry, Air broil, Roast, Bake, Reheat and Dehydrate.
Each of these settings will optimize the time and temperature to perform the selected function. An option called ‘Smart Finish’ syncs the cook times for each basket so even if you’re cooking foods that require different cooking times, the Smart Finish will sync them to finish at the same time and still be cooked thoroughly.
The air fryer has an 8-qt capacity, 4-qt for each basket. Each basket can hold up to 4lbs of fries or wings.
Basket Material:
The baskets are metal and have non-stick coating. This makes them fully dishwasher safe. However, hand-washing them would extend their usability.
How Does Ninja Foodi 6 in 1, 2 Basket Air Fryer Compare To Other Ninja Air Fryers?
To start, the biggest difference is that the Ninja Foodi DZ201 is the only air fryer with two independent baskets. The other models have the traditional single basket design.
When it comes to capacity, the Ninja Foodi DZ201 has the largest capacity at 8 qrts, split in two. So that’s 4 qrts for each basket. Followed by the Ninja Max XL with 5.5 qrts then the Ninja Air fryer with 4 quart capacity.
Functions and presets are also different in each model. The Ninja Max Air Fryer has the most functions, actually, one additional function: Max Crisp. This function cranks up the temperature to 450F, that’s the hottest a Ninja air fryer can reach. If you like your food to be extra crispy, this function does just that. Of course, with the other air fryers, if the food cooks longer, it would get just as crispy, too. The idea of Max Crisp is that is crisps food in less time.
Which One To Buy?
If you plan on using your air fryer to cook multiple foods, the dual baskets are your best pick so you can cook two things at the same time instead of one at a time. And although the Ninja Foodi DZ201 has the largest capacity at 8 qrts, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s split in two. Each basket holding up to 4 lbs of food. This is still great capacity, but it would also depend on what you need.
If the two-basket design is of no interest to you, then your pick is between the Ninja Max XL and Ninja Air Fryer. The Max XL, as the name indicates, has a 5.5 qrts capacity, which holds up to 3 lbs of food. This is considered large in terms of single basket design, as it’s definitely smaller than the Ninja Foodi 2-basket air fryer. The Max XL is also the only air fryer by Ninja that reaches 450F using the Max Crisp function.
The Ninja Air Fryer with 4 qrt capacity would be a good choice for basic cooking tasks and for a single person use or a small family.