Ninja SP101 Review (2023) Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Digital Air Fry Oven

5^th Best Ninja Oven

Before we go deep into this review, I have to mention that there’s a new flip-away oven in town. The brand recently released the Ninja Foodi SP301 Dual Heat Air Fry Oven. It’s more expensive but has a slightly larger capacity and additional features.

Now, let’s go back to the Ninja SP101.

Compared to other Ninja ovens, it doesn’t have the surround convection feature or a bigger fan to distribute heat more evenly.

Based on the SP101’s quick start guide, you must rotate the air fryer basket. It’s probably because of the placement of the fan on the left side of the interior and how small it is.

Those are the things you have to consider when deciding between those three air fryer ovens.

If you don’t have enough space, the Ninja Foodi SP101 will complement your available real estate. Remember that it won’t help you cook a large serving of protein.

Features of the Ninja SP101 Air Fryer Toaster Oven

Even though this is a basic air fryer toaster oven, it has some really great features that make it worth the price tag.

Flip-Away Oven

One of the things I love about the Ninja Foodi SP101 is that it is the original flip-away oven from Ninja. You can install this oven on your countertop and flip it back toward the backsplash when not in use. This allows you to have almost full use of your countertop without having to store the oven elsewhere.

Digital Crisp Control Technology

This is the proprietary cooking technology from Ninja used in this oven, and refers to the precision heating and air flow. Unfortunately, the fan that is part of this system is small and doesn’t do as good of a job of distributing the hot air for air frying and air roasting as other Ninja models.

XL Capacity

Ninja compares the SP101 to a Cuisinart Air Fry Oven when talking about capacity, and compared to that oven the Ninja Foodi Digital Air Fry Oven is definitely larger.

That said, the space is still limited. The removable sheet pan and crumb tray are 13×13, and unless it doesn’t have handles, a 9×13 pan will not fit.

In addition, the oven in its entirety is just 8 inches tall, with the interior of the oven roughly 2 inches smaller than that. This means that you can fit a lot on the surface of a sheet pan, but you don’t have enough height to roast a full chicken.

8 Cooking Programs

Your Ninja Foodi Digital Air Fry Oven is said to replace 8 functions in your kitchen. Not all of these are as efficient as your conventional oven, but these functions are serviceable for most dishes.

Here is more about how each of these functions works.

Air Crisp

Air crisp is its air fry function. The Ninja Foodi SP101 has a small fan on the left side to maximize heat distribution. It’s perfect for cooking french fries, chicken wings, nuggets, and other breaded foods.

Air Roast

While it can’t roast a whole chicken, it can work well with small portions of protein. It’s the ideal setting for making sheet pan meals.

Air Broil

With the air broil function, you can serve your dish with a professional golden brown finish. Aside from being a great tool to up your casserole game, it’s also useful for cooking steaks, fish, and nachos with high heat coming from the top.

Bake

The bake function of the Ninja SP101 has even heat from the top and bottom without the fan running. It’s the ideal setting for baking cookies, cupcakes, and frozen pizzas.

Dehydrate

Dehydrating takes time. A lot of time. It takes eight hours to dehydrate fruits from the air fry basket. It’s a nice feature, but it doesn’t have much space to dehydrate fruits and jerkies in bulk.

Toast

You can fit up to nine slices of bread with the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Air Fryer. With even heat distribution from the top and bottom, you’ll have even browning on both sides. This function will also work for English muffins and frozen waffles. There’s a toast darkness selector to make it easier to get your toast just right.

Bagel

Like the toast function, you can also fit up to 9 bagel slices in the Ninja SP101. Just make sure to place it on the cut side up to ensure the browning of the cut portion.

Keep Warm

If you want to keep your food warm, this setting will engage low heat without the fan running for two hours. This way, you’ll always serve your main dish perfectly warm.

Ninja Foodi Digital Air Fry Oven Accessories

Since the Ninja Foodi SP101 has massive cooking space, it doesn’t have many accessories. You only have a 13 x 13-inch sheet pan and an air fryer basket of the same size. You also get a crumb tray and a wire rack.

And yes, those are the only things you need to perform all eight Ninja Digital Air Fry Oven functions. The air fry basket holds up to 4 pounds of ingredients, so you can fry just about anything in this oven with what comes with it.

Technical Specifications

Type	Air Fryer / Oven Toaster
Brand/Series	Ninja Oven | Ninja Air Fryer → The Ninja Foodi Collection
Model #	SP101, FT102A, FT102CO, SP100, SP101C, SP101H
Price	$$
Rating	4.5 out of 5
Wattage	1800 Watts
Functions	8-in-1: Air Crisp, Air Roast, Air Broil, Bake, Dehydrate, Keep Warm, Toast, Bagel
Capacity	Fits a 13″ Pizza, up to 9 slices of toast or 6 chicken breasts (6–8 oz. Each)
Dishwasher safe	Yes (Wire Rack + Air Fry Basket only)
BPA Free	Yes
Colors	Stainless/black
Dimensions	19.72 x 7.56 x 14.96 inches (50 x 19.2 x 38 cm)
Cord Length	3 ft. (91.4 cm)
Application	Personal Use
Warranty	1 Year
Related Products	Ninja Foodi 13-in-1 Air Fry Oven, Ninja Foodi DT251 Air Oven, Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 Air Oven

What can you cook with the Ninja 8-in-1 Air Fryer?

The Flip-Away Toaster Oven is a multi-functional oven toaster. It can also roast, air frying, broiling, baking, and dehydrating your favorite fruits.

Because it is a large toaster oven rather than simply an air fryer, the Ninja SP101 does a decent baking job. You can bake just about anything in this oven that you can in your range oven, except that you are somewhat limited on space.

However, you can bake muffins, cup cakes, breads, and even pies in this Ninja Foodi Air Fryer Oven.

In fact, you can cook almost anything in this oven that you would make in your traditional oven, except for very large items.

The oven will roast up to 8 chicken breasts at one time, but it isn’t tall enough to accommodate a whole chicken. You may be able to roast a turkey breast, but not a full turkey.

In the end, the Ninja Foodi Digital Air Fry Oven is really just a toaster oven with some added capabilities. It won’t take the place of your full size oven, but it does preheat faster and take less energy to run for smaller food items.

When in doubt how to cook something in your Ninja SP101 Air Fryer Toaster Oven, you can always refer to the manual or the quick start guide. That’s one thing I like about Ninja, the manuals are very detailed, and the quick start guide is super intuitive. Not to mention that your purchase also comes with a recipe book.

Is the Ninja SP101 easy to use?

Unlike the Ninja Foodi XL Pro Air Oven or the Ninja Foodi Smart Oven, the control panel of the Ninja SP101 is located on the right side. It’s the same except for the turn dial, which acts as the function selector and a start button.

If you watch the video below, you’ll see how easy it is to use.

One advantage of this oven toaster is it only has two rack levels for cooking. Unless you’re toasting or air frying, you’ll use the bottom rack.

This takes out some of the guesswork. The presets also help, and your quick start guide has a cooking chart to help you determine the right setting, time, and temperature for other foods.

To help you see how easy it is to adapt the preset functions for your own recipes, here’s a quick run down of the timer increments:

• Air Fry: Adjust in 1-minute increments up to 1 hour.
• Broil: Adjust in 30-second increments up to 30 minutes total.
• Air Roast and Bake: Adjust in 1-minute increments up to 2 hours.
• Dehydrate: Adjust in 30-minute increments up to 12 hours.

In addition, Keep Warm can be set in 5-minute increments up to 2 hours. And, as mentioned above, toast settings are by darkness and vary in timers as well. The quick start guide has a full list of times and temperatures for all of the preset functions as well so that you’ll know if they will work for your recipe.

The quick start guide has plenty of other tips to maximize all of the eight cooking functions of the Ninja Foodi SP101 as well.

How to clean the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Air Fry Oven?

In terms of maintenance, you won’t have any issues with this oven toaster. Apart from you can flip it away, the sheet pan and air fryer basket are dishwasher safe.

To make cleanup even more straightforward, cover your sheet pan with aluminum foil to catch all the greases from roasting protein. It’s going to save you a lot of time cleaning up tough food particles.

When it comes to the air fry basket, spraying it with cooking oil before loading your recipe is highly recommended. It will prevent your dish from sticking, thus making it easier to wash.

Then, all that’s left is to wipe the exterior and interiors with a clean damp cloth. The beauty of the Ninja Foodi digital air fry oven is you can fold it up for storage. You can also open the bottom panel for deep cleaning in this upright position.

Pro Tip: Let the oven cool down before handling. Don’t worry; the timer will display “FLIP” when it’s cool enough for storage or cleaning.

*Product Images and Video Courtesy of Shark Ninja

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