Ninja Woodfire Outdoor Oven Reviewed and Rated

Ninja makes a whole slew of kitchen cooking products from multi-function tabletop electric ovens to food processors, coffee makers, air fryers, waffle irons, pots, pans, and more. You name it, and Ninja’s got your indoor kitchen covered. With the introduction of Woodfire, Ninja takes a step outside onto our decks and patios, a highly unusual move for them. We know of no other electric, tabletop oven that’s made for residential outdoor use, and its smoke feature is another key differentiator! You know that was front of mind when our tests began. Keep reading.

We tested the basic Woodfire that measures 23.62 x 18.58 x 13.31 Inches and weighs 30.6 pounds. Aside from SMOKER, the function choices are fairly typical for this type of  tabletop oven in this price range. We decided to limit our tests to a few of the more interesting functions, with SMOKER being foremost.

Note that each function has default cooking temps and times, but you can adjust either with the – and + buttons.

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Ninja offers a Pro version with a built-in meat thermometer, extended warranty and additional accessories. Recently they rolled out a larger model. An adjustable height stand is also available.

Ninja’s statements about Woodfire’s suitability for outdoor use are confusing. The manual includes a long list of “Important Safety Instructions” ending with:

46 Store indoors when not in use – out of reach of children.

47 DO NOT keep uncovered grill exposed to elements. ALWAYS use grill cover when stored outdoors.

We reached out to Ninja for clarification, but received no response. Our Woodfire has been stored outdoors for several months and successfully endured heat, cold and rain. Browsing through buyer reviews, we found no significant complaints about malfunction due to outdoor use and exposure.

Under the hood

Woodfire has a single, 1760 watt heating element in the base.

A convection fan and second heating element are planted up top in the hood.

A coated grill grate rests over the heating element.

A crisper basket for air frying is included.

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Outside the hood

The power cord integrates a ground fault circuit interrupter as a safety feature on this outdoor electric device.

A grease tray slides out from the  back.

And a wood pellet burning smoke box is on the right side.

Without further ado…

LET’S GET SMOKIN’! We couldn’t deny our excitement at the thought of this little electric tabletop actually having the ability to smoke meats. Normally we use AmazingRibs.com Tested Recipes for our tests. But as we expected smoking on Woodfire would be different from other smokers, we turned to the “Foolproof BBQ Smoking” section of their included recipe book and selected “Kickstarter Recipe for Smoked Baby Back Ribs”. The default temp and time were 250°F for two hours. That’s different from our usual methods. We gave it a go anyway and got started.

The recipe claimed two slabs cut in half could be “shingled” across the cooking grate or placed in a rib rack. We were able to comfortably fit one, good-sized slab of baby backs, seasoned and cut in half, on this little fellow’s 140 square inch cooking grate with room for an additional half slab.

A small pellet scoop and two small bags of wood pellets are included.

We filled the side pellet box with wood pellets and set the control knob to SMOKER. The main heating element kicked in and an electric igniter fired up the wood pellets while the convection fan started circulating heat and smoke. Smoke appeared shortly after ignition and began blowing out the back.

There was a good amount of steady smoke that kept coming. After an hour Woodfire’s recipe called for flipping the ribs. Tongs in hand, we lifted the lid and were surprised and impressed by the dark, mahogany bark already developing on the meat surface.

We flipped and kept smokin’. Soon afterward the smoke subsided so we added more pellets then pressed the Woodfire Flavor Technology button next to the function knob to activate the electric ignition and resume smoking. The Flavor Technology button can also be used to burn pellets on any of Woodfire’s cook function settings.

We use the bend test to determine when ribs are done and almost ready to break apart. Click here to learn more. But we were on Woodfire turf and followed their instructions. After two hours our baby backs came off. Man did they LOOK GOOD!

Deep, dark, drool producing beautiful, brown finish. But that smoke reverie changed abruptly when we started cutting.

Inside the meat was bland, gray and dry. Our slab would have benefited from wrapping in foil at the one hour mark to retain moisture.

We don’t want to discount the smoky visual appeal Woodfire created. Numerous studies conclude that food’s appearance is a significant factor in the eating experience. But the overall results were lacking to say the least. Woodfire produces some good looking smoked meat, but no trace of  smoke ring and very little smoke aroma and flavor. 

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Can Woodfire sear?

YES! As our skirt steak attests. With GRILL selected and set to HI, Woodfire had power to spare.

BROIL

I like to broil the top of mac ‘n cheese for a tasty brown finish. So we picked that for our next test, grabbed a single serving package from the grocery store and baked it at 375°F for a half hour.

Then switched the function knob to BROIL. The default temp of 500°F kicked in and the fan went into overdrive. After five minutes here’s what we got.

It’s not the most powerful broiler we’ve seen, but it did something. I’m sure after using it a couple times we could get even better results by baking less and broiling more.

Packaging and assembly

Like most small tabletops, this is a simple product to package and Ninja knows how to do it right. Assembly was a breeze. All you have to do is screw the left and right handles onto each side.

Conclusion

Woodfire is an interesting, outdoor addition to Ninja’s extensive catalog of cooking products. These small tabletop units are extremely popular. They’re affordable and useful for a variety of applications, particularly when portability and/or a small footprint coupled with versatility is desirable and high capacity cooking is not needed. Among the dizzying number of multi-function tabletops to choose from, Woodfire at least gives a nod to, and attempt at smoking. The majority of Woodfire owners are pleased with their purchase. We award Woodfire our AmazingRIbs.com Best Value Gold Medal.

Warranty

One year limited.

Psssst….if you wanna know how smoked meat should taste, check out your nearest highly rated barbecue joints. Click here for a state by state list of some of our favorites. 

We thank Ninja for providing a Woodfire for our tests.