The Ninja Foodi DZ201 is an 8-qt dual-drawer air fryer meant for preparing full meals and serving bigger groups of five or more people. Ninja markets it as their first dual-basket air fryer, and it is their smallest air fryer in this format, too. Its design lets you cook different foods with different settings in each of the baskets. It has several modes for different cooking methods, like 'Roast,' 'Broil,' 'Bake,' and of course 'Air Fry.' However, it's quite bulky, even considering its big capacity.
Our Verdict
The Ninja DZ201 is a great air fryer. It makes good-quality air-fried food, so your food mostly comes out crispy, well-cooked, and golden brown, with just a small amount ending up undercooked. It cooks quickly and is very versatile, so you can use it for a variety of recipes and cooking methods.
-
Makes good-quality fried food.
-
Wide range of fan speeds and temperature settings.
-
Big surface area for cooking.
-
Preheats and cooks quickly.
-
Bulky design.
The Ninja DZ201 is great for large-batch cooking. As an 8-qt fryer, it's meant for serving groups of five or more and has an impressive amount of cooking surface area for arranging food in a single layer. You can cook different foods on each side of the basket using different settings. It's also fast and versatile, and it makes good-quality air-fried food.
-
Makes good-quality fried food.
-
Wide range of fan speeds and temperature settings.
-
Big surface area for cooking.
-
8-qt capacity.
-
Preheats and cooks quickly.
-
Bulky design.
The Ninja DZ201 has a good frying performance. It has a large cooking surface area, cooks quickly, and does a good job of maintaining a stable temperature during cooking. Air-fried foods like Brussels sprouts, French fries, or chicken wings come out mostly evenly well-cooked, golden brown, and crispy. However, some parts are still undercooked when a few bits start to burn.
-
Makes good-quality fried food.
-
Big surface area for cooking.
-
Preheats and cooks quickly.
-
Bulky design.
The Ninja DZ201 is a fast air fryer. It preheats and cooks your food quickly.
-
Preheats and cooks quickly.
-
Bulky design.
The Ninja Foodi 2-Basket Air Fryer (DZ201) has an impressive cooking capacity. With 8qts of capacity overall, it's a large air fryer that's meant for serving bigger groups. The baskets have a good amount of surface area for you to spread your food out in a single layer.
-
Big surface area for cooking.
-
8-qt capacity.
-
Bulky design.
The Ninja Foodi 2-Basket Air Fryer (DZ201) has a bulky design. It has a wide footprint and takes up a lot of space on a counter.
-
Bulky design.
- 8.0 Air Frying
- 8.0 Large Batch Cooking
Performance Usages
- 7.7 Frying Performance
- 8.6 Cooking Speed
- 8.0 Cooking Capacity
- 6.8 Size
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Ninja DZ201 only comes in 'Grey.' Here's the label for the unit we tested.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Air Fryers
The Ninja DZ201 is a dual-basket air fryer with an 8-quart capacity. Like similar models from Ninja, like the 10-qt Ninja Foodi DZ401 and the Ninja Foodi DZ550, you can cook two kinds of food separately in each drawer with different settings. It makes good-quality fried food, outperforming the DZ401 and the Beautiful 9QT TriZone when it comes to making crispy, evenly cooked food. As you might expect from a large-capacity air fryer, it's pretty big. If you want something easier to fit in your kitchen, the 8-qt Ninja DoubleStack SL201's baskets are stacked one on top of the other, giving it a taller, narrower footprint. Unfortunately, that model doesn't perform nearly as well.
If you're still looking for an air fryer, see our list of the best models.
Test Results
As you might expect from an 8-qt fryer, it has an impressive cooking surface capacity, so you have a lot of space to arrange food in a single layer. The crisper trays have a ceramic coating, which is a plus if you avoid PTFE non-stick materials.
It has excellent versatility. Its dual-drawer design means you can choose different settings for each basket, so you can prepare your protein in one basket and a side dish like vegetables in the other. You can use the 'Smart Finish' setting to have both baskets finish cooking at the same time, even if each basket is programmed with a different cook time. (It'll delay cooking for the basket with the shorter cooking time). The 'Match Cook' function applies the same settings to each basket. You can also pause cooking for each basket separately. Otherwise, it has a pretty big range of temperature and fan speed settings for different cooking methods.
- Air Fry: 1 – 60 minutes, 300°F – 400°F maximum fan speed
- Air Broil: 1 – 30 minutes, up to 400°F – 450°F
- Roast: 1 minute – 4 hours, 250°F – 400°F (Time is adjustable in one-minute increments up to one hour and in five-minute increments beyond one hour).
- Reheat: 1 – 60 minutes, 270°F – 400°F
- Dehydrate: 1 – 12 hours, 105°F – 195°F, lowest fan speed (Time is adjustable in 15-minute increments)
- Bake: 1 minute – 4 hours, 250°F – 400°F (Time is adjustable in one-minute increments up to one hour and in five-minute increments beyond one hour).
It makes good-quality fried food. When air-frying foods like French fries, vegetables, or chicken wings, most of them turn out crispy and golden brown. However, by the time some parts start to overcook, a significant amount is still undercooked and not crispy enough.
It has great temperature stability. It doesn't take very long to come back up to temperature after you open the drawer to add food. It maintains a stable temperature during cooking, making it easier to cook delicate food like fish and accurately follow recipes.