Verdict
Delivering the best BBQ results I’ve seen from any outdoor device, the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker is an exceptional way to cook food. With simple controls, a smart app, and a choice of timer or temperature probe cooking, this BBQ is exceptionally easy to use. It’s its brilliant integrated smoker that makes this BBQ stand out, adding smoky flavour to food in an easy way.
Pros
- Exceptional cooking
- Simple controls
- Smart app
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CapacityHas space for up to 40 burgers or two 3kg chickens. -
SmokingTakes Ninja’s pellets for a proper woodfire taste.
Introduction
Bigger, smarter and with temperature probe cooking, the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker is a step up from the previous outdoor grill.
Simple controls, complemented by an app, and excellent app makes this one of the best BBQs that I’ve reviewed.
Design and Features
- Works with Ninja’s range of pellets
- App control
- Lots of cooking modes
Externally, the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker is a larger version of last year’s Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker OG701UK. In terms of size, there’s enough room to cook up to 10 burgers or two 3kg chickens at once; it also makes it easier to cook longer items, such as chicken skewers.
The grill plate is used for all cooking modes, but there’s also a very large air fry basket for cooking chips, wedges and any other food that you want to have a crispy finish.
More space means more weight, and the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker is a chunky 18kg, which makes it relatively difficult to move around and store. I think it’s worth pairing this product with the optional stand and making it more of a fixed feature.
As with the original model, the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker is an outdoor air fryer and grill, which has the added benefit that it can be used with Ninja’s wood pellets to add a smoky flavour to any of the cooking methods, or to smoke at lower temperatures.
Ninja provides two packs of sample pellets in the box, the more gentle all-purpose blend and the robust blend.
Using the pellets is as simple as grabbing a scoop of them, tipping them into the pellet container on the side, and then hitting the Woodfire button, which starts the ignition system to automatically light the pellets. That’s far easier than faffing around with a traditional BBQ or using a cast-iron smoker in the Char-Broil Evolve Electric.
Controlling the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker is simple. Ninja once again proves that it’s the king of the user interface, with simple, understandable controls on the front.
First, there’s a choice to pick the cooking mode: smoker, grill, air fry, roast, bake, dehydrate and reheat. Then, you choose the cooking time and temperature (plus whether you want smoke or not), and hit go. Then, the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker kicks into life and beeps when it’s ready to take food.
As with Ninja’s air fryers, you can tweak time and temperatures mid-cook, giving a lot of flexibility during cooking.
To take the guesswork out of cooking times, the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker supports up to two temperature probes (one is provided), and you can set a target temperature for food on the display, chosen by the type of food, such as beef or chicken. Chicken gives you one option, as it should, but with some choices, such as beef, you get choices of well-done, medium and so on.
For most cooking jobs, the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker should be used with the lid shut, to maintain heat and circulate any smoke. However, for more delicate items, such as asparagus, the lid can be opened, so you can char food without overcooking it.
All of this can be a lot to take in, so it’s good to see the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker can connect to Wi-Fi and be controlled via the smart app.
As well as making it easier to choose settings, the app also has meal suggestions for a wide variety of food, which you can just send to the machine.
Once running, the app will ping when the cooking time’s up, plus you can tweak temperature and cooking times mid-cook, which is handy.
Cleaning up at the end of a cook is easy, although you do need to wait for the pellet hopper to burn out before you can remove it and tip out the ash. Both the grill plate and crisper basket are easy to remove, and should be washed in soapy water (they are not dishwasher safe).
There’s also a grease tray at the rear that should be removed and cleaned. Ninja sells optional foil inserts that can simply be removed and thrown away, although this does seem a little wasteful.
Performance
- Incredible results across the aboard
- Smoky taste to food
- Handles delicate items well
I started by cooking some chicken wings and skewers on the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker, using the grill mode and the robust smoke pellets, with a temperature probe inserted into a kebab.
Chicken can be hard to get right on the BBQ, trying to get it thoroughly cooked without being tough, but the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker did the best job I’ve seen on any BBQ.
The resulting chicken was perfectly cooked but moist and easy to break apart, with a beautiful char-grilled flavour. It was quite exceptional.
Similarly, my chicken wings were perfect. As the intense heat worked on them, the wings expanded and became juicy and rich, with a crispy exterior.
Next, I decided to cook Mexican, starting with a pineapple salsa. For this, I grilled slices of pineapple, giving them nice grill lines and infusing them with the all-round pellets.
Once cooked, I took the slices off and blended them with spices to create perfect salsa: smooth, rich and smoky.
To go with this, I cooked marinated fish. Fish is hard to do on a BBQ, as it can stick and break up, and doesn’t need much cooking. With the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker, the job was easy.
I used the smoker mode, going for low-and-slow cooking, using the temperature probe. This gave me perfectly cooked cod, which gently flaked apart without disintegrating. This is one of my favourite dishes, and the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker cooked it the best.
I finished off using the air fryer, cooking some hash browns and sausages. Going to a maximum temperature of 240°C, the Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker is capable of very crispy results, although I found it took slightly longer to cook items than in a dedicated air fryer, such as the Double Stack XL.
However, the overall results were great and, in particular, my hash browns were excellent: crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
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Should you buy it?
You want brilliant BBQ results with the minimum of effort
Simple controls (and app), combined with a brilliant smoker system means you can get perfectly BBQ’d food fast.
You want electric but with a traditional feel
If you like standing over the BBQ, cooking for long periods, a regular electric BBQ that mimics a gas or charcoal model may be a better choice.
Final Thoughts
There will be some people who prefer the more traditional approach to BBQing, with food needing to be watched and turned; that’s the kind of experience that the electric Char-Broil Evolve provides. The Ninja Woodfire Pro Connect XL Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker is different, offering precision and timed (or temperature) control for cooking, along with an absurdly simple way of adding a smoky flavour to food.
With brilliant controls and a smart app that genuinely adds to the experience, I found the Pro Connect XL delivered the best results from any outdoor cooker that I’ve used. It’s so easy to set-up and use, that I end up BBQing more than I would otherwise. If you want exceptional results with the minimum of hassle, there’s nothing better.
How we test
We test every BBQ we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main BBQ for the review period.
Cooked with a variety of food to see how well the BBQ copes with different ingredients.
Tested to see how evenly the BBQ heats.
FAQs
Yes, the app lets you remote control and monitor the cooking process.
The grill is designed to be used with Ninja’s wood pellets only.
