About a month ago, my conventional indoor oven broke. I was not surprised, given that it was built in 1955. But it did present a bit of an inconvenience given that we feed a family of four.
This was less of a disaster than you might expect, because I already had the Ninja oven set up in my backyard. This electric oven has eight functions, and I use it almost every day. Not only have we made pizzas, we’ve also smoked ribs, toasted chicken nuggets, and baked cakes and muffins.
I am shocked at how easy this oven is to use. Granted, it’s not very exciting. It feels a lot more like using a microwave than a conventional oven or smoker—push a button, bleep bloop blop, your food is done. But it’s idiotproof and affordable, and it saved my butt. If you have a small kitchen or limited outdoor space, I recommend it.
The oven … well, it looks like a tiny outdoor oven. It’s 18 inches wide, 21.5 inches deep, and 15 inches high. It weighs a shockingly light 32.4 pounds, which made it easy even for me to move around to just the right spot in the backyard (next to the electrical outlet).
Ninja sent a proprietary adjustable outdoor stand and attachable side table, which was nice but not necessary, since the oven would’ve fit well on our wooden backyard table. What was necessary, however, were the pans. The oven comes with a roasting pan, a wire rack, and a pizza stone, along with pellet accessories (more on those later).
The cooking area is a nonstandard size, about 12 by 13 inches. This is fine for a pizza oven but not a conventional baking oven. About half of my pans worked. I could fit in a 10-inch cast iron and my 8-inch pans and springforms. But if you want to, say, bake muffins, you have to have Ninja’s proprietary muffin pan. It’s fine! I like the oven enough that I bought the pan, and I’m satisfied with the pan's weight and durability. Still, I feel a pang at abandoning the faithful muffin and mini muffin tins that have served me for so long.