Our back patio has been a revolving door for grills the past three years. After a Weber propane barbecue became unusable from overuse, I tossed it and went to a small-brand wood pellet smoker and a tabletop charcoal grill. Even tried a pizza oven for a while. The smoker has never worked well, the charcoal grill is too small, and the pizza oven didn’t bake evenly. Honestly, there’s no more room back there.
But the past few weeks, I’ve been able to review the Ninja FlexFlame 5-in-1 outdoor cooking system that smokes, roasts, griddles, grills and makes pizza. I think we are the perfect candidate for such an appliance, because it essentially replaces everything we have back there in the yard.
And kudos to the people at Ninja who saw a gap in the outdoor cooking market – while plenty of outdoor grills existed, no single product could handle the variety of cooking methods home chefs like me wanted, all under one hood. This machine – which they bill as “revolutionary” – plugs in and operates with a propane tank, which is frankly a little different than anything I’ve personally cooked on. It comes with a very short plug, so you need to connect it to an outside socket via an outdoor-approved extension cord that you buy separately. I thought this was a little odd. But I looked it up online and saw it’s not completely uncommon. And when you want to add a smoky flavor to your food, you just add two scoops of wood pellets to a bin on the side. The unit I’ve been reviewing also came with a slew of accessories, such as a full-size and very heavy griddle, pizza stone, indirect heat rack, and more. The machine includes a proprietary “CyclonicHeat-iQ” system, which is a high-velocity convection fan that provides heat within the grill cavity, resulting in faster cooking, surround crisping and browning, and the ability to preheat to 600°F in as little seven minutes. There’s an easy-to-navigate digital control panel where you set the target temperature and power on or off the smoker. The company claims the target temperature is maintained throughout the entire cooking process, using less propane. In my experience, any time I opened the grill to check on food, the temperature seemed to drop off quickly and then took a minute or two to heat back up once I shut the lid.
In my short time using the grill, I used it to make flank steak – and included the pellets to add a smoky flavor. I honestly should’ve marinated the steak longer, as it lacked the deep flavor and texture I have perfected with my Weber over the years. But I’ll blame that one on me, and my unfamiliarity with the Ninja.
Next I made pizza, which everyone agreed came out great. But even preset to 600 degrees, I felt it took several minutes longer to bake the pizza than it should have. Again, maybe I just wasn’t used to the machine.
Third, I grilled turkey burgers. Once more, they came out decent but I swear they took an extra 10 minutes compared to the Weber to cook – at the same temperature.
Finally, I grilled chicken which had been pre-sliced into strips. We felt it came out near-perfect in about the time it should have. Maybe I’ve gotten a full understanding of how the Ninja works, after all.
Being that we enjoy barbecuing, I will continue testing out my limited skills on this machine. I’ve been watching how-to videos on YouTube for tips and ideas. In general, I love how the Ninja combines the functions of all the other machines I’ve tried. And it’s fairly quiet, which is great. Another advantage I see over other new smokers and grills is that it does not require a phone app to operate. One warning, if you try it and get accessories, know that there’s not a lot of storage inside the doors. So there’s no place to tuck away the griddle or pizza stone. But I’ll make room for those somewhere – especially if I can get rid of the old smoker and charcoal grill.