Ninja - Max XL Air Fryer (AF161)

I love my ninja XL or whatever it is.

Ninja just introduced this face-lift version. I have the original, prior model, and as others have stated, I use this constantly without failure. Very happy purchase

I've gotten TONS of use out of a Ninja Max XL 5.5qt since 2023. I love this thing. I use it several times a week for things like potatoes, salmon, frozen broc, chicken, sometimes steak. But, I'm finding that I could occasionally use a little bit larger surface area (e.g., large chicken cutlets sometimes can push it). I've never needed it to be any taller. Visibility isn't super important but it might be nice to see what's going on and not interrupt cooking. Wondering if anyone's been in a similar spot, what they went with, and how they like it? Thanks!

I have a dedicated air fryer and a ninja air fryer oven thing. The dedicated air fryer is much better at most things, especially meat like chicken thighs. The oven combo is good at veggies, reheating foods, frozen fries, etc. The oven is not better at those things, but the profile of the large rack makes it more convenient. I had a dedicated nice counter oven that quit. I thought the combo would be a good replacement. It's not really. It's not as good as an oven and not as good as an air fryer. But the combination is convenient since I still have the air fryer. The combo absolutely can't replace my dedicated ninja air fryer.

Ahhh the AF100 I remember you at the start of my 'whats a good airfryer to buy journey' :). Im getting an airfryer with Qantas points so its $0 and one i can get online via Qantas points is the ninja 5.2l. From another post their 5l airfryer can cook half a pizza... so yeah that might do so I portion control and pizza lasts.

I shake in this one too. It's a little on the smaller side so I only do about 8 wings at a time. I usually flip about half way through and do some shaking towards the end.

The 5.5qt thing sounds big, but it's more tall than broad. It's still plenty big. Despite any of the accompanying materials, yes, you want to keep stuff 1 layer thick. Ideally with space in between. For stuff like fries and onion rings, yeah, toss them (people say 2x, 3x is better. 4x, though, isn't - given the total frying time). You might be able to get 1.5 layers in and still get ok results. Chicken wings. \[edit: doing this, I get some internal bubbles leading to very delicate shatter crispy bubbles. Big stretches of shattering crispy skin on the remaining 80-90%. Not much gets not-crispy, even if a wing flat or drumstick has been sitting at room temp for an hour or two. "*Recrisp"* is a setting my air fryer has, and it's designed for refreshing crispy stuff\] Baking powder does make the skin *potentially* crispier by changing the pH/making it a little more alkaline. The suggestion for *powder* is before acceptance of potato starch as the premier coating. That suggestion is predicate on no additional dry coating. Baking powder is fine even with a dry coating. Not great. You need to use potato starch. It is superior because of it's inherent properties based on its structure as a starch. Potato starch is not the best for everything, but it is the best for dry battered air fried chicken wings. Dry wings with clean paper towel(s). Fish sauce is a secret ingredient - no "fishiness" comes through. You can use Accent (er, Ac'cent, I guess they're calling themselves now) which is MSG. Or just go get and use unabashed straight-up MSG. Baking soda - I do end up using a full (but flat) tablespoon per pound. The amounts you will see may be very different (much less). I don't sense any negative tastes/alkalinity. You do need some moisture/liquid in order to evenly spread the baking soda. Sprinkle some water from your fingertips from a bowl of clean water directly onto the wings in your mixing bowl, if you need to. Aromatics of your liking (including ground pepper, your call on variety. garlic. onion. paprika?). Salt. Let sit for a while/whatever. Before you load up the air fryer, toss each piece in potato starch. If you're bold, you can pour some potato starch in a sealable tupperware-type container, drop in your split wings. Seal, shake. Shake excess off. Place in basket/whatever. Spray with a fine mist of oil, the finer the better, - just enough to un-white the potato starch on the surface. Flip each piece, and finely spray the other side. For "regular"/larger sized wings, Air fry (400F) 10 min. Colour will be skeptical. Flip. 8 minutes Air fry. Colour should be closer. Flip. 2 minutes Max Fry (the maximum temp/fan speed yours can go. Having a "crisper" type surface on the bottom through all this helps lots). Take out, let sit for a couple of minutes before consuming/tossing in sauce.

So I have two air fryers. Both are ninjas. One is single and one is dual. I do agree the single is better. It's really convenient to have three air fryers when making something like air fryer chicken, roasted veggies & fresh french fries. I can make all three at the same time and eat at the same time. Super convenient. Also if making wontons and spring rolls. I have a pretty busy job, a young child & a husband who doesn't cook. So for me worth it to have all. I also have enough space in my kitchen.

There's a Ninja for every lifestyle, it seems. I have both their indoor grill air fryer and their classic big single drawer air fryer. Both have served me very well and reliably for 4 years. I am definitely getting a bigger 6 liter Auto Advanced glass tub airfryer simply because it can handle different types of tubs and has an extra powerful heating element fan. Unlike its smaller glass bowl fryer, the bigger fryer is better value for the 5 the heating head is mounted on a stand with a rising glass bowl holder for handling different depths of bowls. These are oven grade glass bowls that come with lids. Once cool, they are safe for fridge or freezer.

Got a clamshell ninja foodi Max something or other and it cooks chicken including breaded chicken perfectly. If you want a tip, it's worth getting a small grill thing that stands off from the floor so the whole thing gets heat evenly. When it comes to meat, I can usually toss anything in and it's done within 14 - 16 minutes. Doesn't matter what it is. Chicken is typically lightly browned on the outside and perfect inside. Not chewy, greasy, dry. Don't use any extra oil, there is enough in the meat already. Same with potato fries, they come out nice on their own. Now all I use is my air fryer, microwave for frozen veggies and rice cooker. If I'm having rice, I use that for veggies too. I like everything to be as simple as possible, so set it and forget it. Haven't used my stove top or oven since I got the ninja in 2022. If you have more than 2 -3 people it might not be big enough. I don't like the pull out drawer ones. https://preview.redd.it/90u3bmpq9wye1.jpeg?width=3600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2983c5b6b0d4daf757196223e3e8c673f54b4073