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For many of us, the last 18 months served to highlight how important it is to be able to take care of your meals without heading to a nearby restaurant or having to pay extra delivery fees.
Cooking at home will save you money daily, and it will allow you unique opportunities to impress guests and new friends.
However, some types of foods just don’t mesh well with apartment living. Free grilling and deep-fried foods can be messy when cooked indoors. However, smokeless grills and an air fryer can provide you with a healthier alternative with almost no dirty dishes.
So where are you going to store all these new appliances? If you manage to find a smokeless indoor grill that comes with a free air fryer, then you won’t need to reconfigure your counters at all!
Why Combine an Indoor Grill with an Air Fryer?
Fried and grilled food may sit on opposite ends of the health spectrum, but they share that extra flavour profile that a regular oven or stew can’t provide.
Deep-fried foods use a large amount of cooking oil, which is dangerous and costly. Plus, they are not something we can indulge in very often: the crunchy outer layer comes at the expense of doubling the caloric amount of our foods.
Usually, grilled food is exceptional because of that char grilled taste created when protein comes into direct contact with hot metal. This process is known as the “Maillard reaction”, and as tasty as its result is, it has one major drawback: it generates a lot of smoke.
Indoors, smoke is not good. It leaves dirt and smells behind in the curtains and may even accidentally activate your smoke detectors.
On the other hand, Smokeless indoor grilling offers a chance to get around this – for those who have both the money and the counter space. By getting the grill and an air fryer combined, you will be able to divide the cost per use of your new appliance.
Our Picks For An All-In-One Smokeless Indoor Grill With An Air Fryer
Smokeless Indoor Grill With a Free Air Fryer | Product Information | Check Price |
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![]() | BBday 6.5 QT Air Fryer | Check Price |
![]() | Ninja FG551 Foodi Smart XL 6-in-1 Indoor Grill | Check Price |
![]() | PowerXL Air Fryer Grill 8 in 1 Roast | Check Price |
10-in-1 BBday 6.5 QT Air Fryer and Smokeless Indoor Electric Grill
- Grill your favorite foods to char-grilled perfection, or go beyond grilling with 7 additional cooking functions: Air Grill(4 scene settings),Roast,Bake, Air Fry, Dehydrate,Fries,Meat etc.
- BBday Electric Grill features 10 selectable presets including MEAT, BEAN/CHILI, BEEF, PORRIDGE, PORK, VEGETABLES, SAUTE etc.
- Perfectly cook food on the inside to your desired doneness and char-grill every side with 515F Cyclonic Grilling Technology and the Smart Cook System.
The BBday Air Fryer and Smokeless Indoor Electric grill looks a lot like an air fryer, although it offers ten different cooking functions. Some of them are a bit repetitive, but they make for a nice slogan.
This model can air fry, grill, roast, bake, and dehydrate. It also has a “pan fry” mode and a “beef”, which feel very similar to the standard grill function.
The only significant difference is, perhaps, that pan-frying requires adding oil to the grill.
Its bulky and slightly robot-like frame is very efficient, even if the grill plate is not as large as other models. This is because this model goes deep rather than wide. There are two purposes for this:
First, it allows you to fit a larger cut of meat or even an entire chicken when using the roast or bake mode.
Second, it provides extra room for the air to circulate and be vacuumed off when using it as a smokeless grill.
The second point was particularly relevant, as it ensures well-cooked, crispy grilled meats that don’t feel soggy. The grilling plate is ribbed and provides very realistic grill marks that look just like those from an outdoor grill.
The BBday also has a stylish LED control panel, including a haptic control knob and the ability to view your current settings quickly. You can also alter the timer and temperature easily or even pre-program changes in temperature ahead of time.
However, the backlight is not strong enough for bright days.
Pros | Cons |
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Roomy. | The “10 in 1” label exaggerates a bit. |
The smokeless grill function works very well. | Some users report that the LED display may be hard to read. |
Advanced programming functions. | |
Best Smokeless Indoor Grill With a Free Air Fryer Reviews |
Ninja FG551 Foodi Smart XL
- Ninja Foodi Smart XL Grill with Smart Cook System. The Smart XL grill that sears, sizzles, and crisps. Indoor countertop Grill and Air Fryer
- Perfectly cook food on the inside to your desired doneness and char grill every side with 500F Cyclonic Grilling Technology and the Smart Cook System.
- 4 smart protein settings, 9 customizable doneness levels, and the Foodi Smart Thermometer enable you to achieve the perfect doneness from rare to well done at the touch of a button.
Thanks to its futuristic design and intuitive commands, the Ninja Foodi line jumped to fame over the last year. The FG551 model combines the same advantages with a few extra functions – including the chance to grill foods without creating splatters or smoke.
Made almost entirely of stainless steel, the Foodi Smart XL offers a wide temperature surface and a non-stick grilling tray. This may allow you to fit in more pieces of meat, despite having a capacity of only 6 quarts. Because of this, you may not be able to hold a tall piece of beef or a cake.
To keep smoke and scents under control, the Ninja Foodi Smarts hides a series of ventilation slots on the edges of the grill plate.
These also help drain the fat into the removable drip tray while creating a “cool air zone” that will prevent the machine (or your kitchen) from overheating. The vents work well, but some users reported seeing some steam when opening the lid.
The button panel is arranged right below the lid, across the appliance rather than on one side. It offers exact temperature controls, but depending on the height of your counters, it may require you to crouch.
One major drawback: this model uses smooth polished steel instead of a tempered glass lid, which doesn’t allow you to see how your food progresses.
That being said, you should probably fight the urge to be constantly opening the machine, as it will lower its temperature and increase your energy consumption.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Futuristic design with a well-polished stainless steel case. | Smaller capacity than the BBday. |
Six well-differentiated cooking functions. | You can’t check the food without losing some heat. |
Efficient smoke-free system. | |
Best Smokeless Indoor Grill With a Free Air Fryer Reviews |
PowerXL Air Fryer Grill 8 in 1
- PowerXL Air Fryer Grill 12.5” x 10” with 8 Piece deluxe accessory set. Indoor grill and air fryer now with 7x more superheated air.
- 450° nonstick grill pan gives you authentic char grill marks & flavor on your favorite barbecue meals.
- Crispier air frying up to 40% faster vs. a conventional oven. Superheated cyclonic air circulates at extra high speed around all sides of food for tender, even cooking inside and extra golden crisping outside.
The PowerXL 8 in 1 system is a powerful toaster oven that can also power smokeless grilling and air frying. This is rendered evident from the very beginning: the PowerXL looks just like most high-end toaster ovens in the market, just with different settings in its central control knob.
Still, there are a few advantages to this old school design. First, if you are not very tech-savvy, you will find it remarkably easy to use.
Besides, the conventional oven layout helps it preserve heat more efficiently, so it handles high density and high temperatures more efficiently.
As a result, when using the “bake” setting, you can reach temperatures of up to 450 F, which allow you to bake something without defrosting it.
If you get the PowerXL alongside its eight-piece accessory pack, you will be able to grill, grate, roast, bake and toast using the same device.
There’s also the added advantage of three tray slots. If you are really in a rush for time, you can place the air frying basket on top and the grill plate on the bottom one.
In this way, you will be able to air fry your potatoes and grill a couple of steaks simultaneously – and combining the aromas yields surprisingly good results.
On the other hand, the PowerXL doesn’t perform as well when in toast or bagel mode. Unless you place everything in the middle tray slot, you will probably end up with an uneven toast, and your bread will unavoidably be too dark on one side.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Various cooking functions. | We noticed that this product has a maximum temperature of 450 degrees. |
Easy to Clean. | Noisy. According to customer reviews. |
User less or no oil. | |
Best Smokeless Indoor Grill With a Free Air Fryer Reviews |
Why Air Frying Took Our Kitchens By Storm?
Just a few years ago, air fryers were a deluxe appliance that was reserved for late-night infomercials. This made it significantly harder to trust the manufacturers’ claims.
Many of these early air fryers used too much electricity, were prone to overheat and were hard to clean.
Over the last 2 to 3 years, brands like Ninja finally popularized the air fryer, to the point that it is now considered an essential appliance for health-conscious cooks.
So what makes air fryers irresistible? The answer is their ability to produce food that feels deep-fried but only uses very little (if any) oil.
Most air fryers come with their recipe books, which promise to help you adapt restaurant recipes to air frying technology. Just keep in mind that super-hot air does not yield equal results for all types of food:
- Fried starches (French fries, onion rings, cassava fries, and wedges) are ideal for air frying: you will get most of the taste, with only a quarter of the calorie content.
- Red meat can also be cooked on an air fryer with outstanding results, as long as you don’t overcook it.
- Pork and seafood can be air fried, but you won’t save as many calories as French fries. This is because grilled pork often cooks in its own fat.
- Small chicken pieces tend to come out dry when air fried.
Smoke-free Indoor Grilling: How It Works
The technology to power smokeless indoor grilling is not new, even if it was near-impossible to find just a few years ago.
Most countertop indoor grills use a non-stick grill plate infrared technology to imitate the effect of hot iron and coal. Using electricity as a heat source can prevent up to 80% of all the smoke from ever being created – but what about the rest?
Placing any meat on a super hot surface creates a small amount of “sizzle”, no matter what. If you have ever fried bacon in a regular pan, you will have noticed it.
Once the meat is not swimming in oil, the amount of smoke created may be enough to activate the smoke alarm, especially in small apartments.
The key here is to dissipate it before it has a chance to do so. This is done by covering the meat while grilling, usually through a steel or tempered glass lid. Then, a series of side vents and fans dissipate any leftover smoke and prevent it from accumulating.
Final Thoughts
Nowadays, it’s pretty easy to combine a smokeless indoor grill with a free air fryer in a single appliance. Many of these devices are now cost-effective and energy-efficient.
This is an excellent way for home cooks to access the last two types of “restaurant cooking” that were too messy to try at home.
So why not give it a try? Whether you live in an apartment or somewhere with harsh winters, you can now move the Big Game party directly to your living room – and even include a side of healthy fries.