Nothing beats perfectly grilled food shared with loved ones – especially when it’s warm outside. An outdoor electric grill enhances any gathering, creating unique flavours and recipes that can be cooked with ease. Whether it’s a juicy steak, smoked baby back ribs or chargrilled vegetables, electric grills offer the benefits of many traditional grills, and more.
There are different types of electric grills to enjoy, each with their own specialty features. Keep reading to learn how you can experience the variety of cooking and health benefits of electric outdoor grills.
What is an electric outdoor grill?
Electric grills are a more convenient and efficient alternative to traditional gas or charcoal-fuelled grills. Powered by electricity, they can be plugged directly into a socket (or, depending on the model, a suitable extension cord). Being easily portable, outdoor electric grills are ideally placed on a table or benchtop while cooking but can just as easily be placed on the ground if you prefer.
Featuring a variety of cooking methods, each grill comes with its own attachments – such as your staple grill plate and grease tray – as well as a built-in convection fan which distributes hot air within the grill to evenly cook food and concentrate aroma.
What are the advantages of using an electric outdoor grill?
With new cooking appliances comes new techniques, flavours and recipes. This is why electric outdoor barbecue grills are increasing in popularity, allowing you to create delicious food with less fuss. The team at Ninja Kitchen is leading the way, offering a range of grills with innovative features – such as integrated air fryers and woodfire technology.
Whether it’s for a weeknight dinner or a backyard party, there are plenty of advantages of using a Ninja electric grill. We’ll explore the top eight below.
1. More ways to cook your favourite meals
Ninja outdoor electric grills have a variety of easily adjustable cooking attachments and methods, such as:
- grilling
- smoking
- air frying
- roasting
- baking
- dehydrating
- reheating
Like traditional grills, you can whip up delicious, chargrilled dishes. But, you can just as easily adjust your grill for different recipes, like some impressive smoke butter and anchovy jatz or some crispy curly fries.
2. Cook for more people, with less hassle
Using an electric grill allows you to cook food faster and more conveniently. All you need to do is place your ingredients on the grill plate and set your desired cooking settings. You don’t need to monitor doneness, flip the food or worry about the loss of heat. This allows you to deliver dishes quickly and stress free – giving you more time to enjoy the food and company. A favourite grilling dish is the Cajun Grilled Chicken & Pepper Kebabs – a classic crowd pleaser. For vegetarians, the chicken can be swapped with a variety of grilled vegetables.
3. No more undercooking or overcooking
With traditional grills, overcooking usually takes place from ingredients being left on the grill for too long, which can also result in flames scorching food, leaving it charred and tasteless. Undercooking, however, is often the result of the weather or atmosphere interfering with the heat and flame of the grill.
Ninja Kitchen grills like the Ninja Foodi Smart XL Grill & Air Fryer feature a Smart Cook System to remove guesswork from the cooking process. You can pick between four smart protein settings, nine customisable doneness levels and use the Foodi Smart Probe to achieve your preferred doneness. And, better still, you can use this electric grill inside or outside – but more on that shortly.
4. Easy to pack up and transport
In the past, grills were bound to a certain section of your home. Often being left in a covered outdoor area and only being wheeled out when the time was right. Outdoor electric grills are size efficient and can easily be taken to and setup at any event. This gives you more choice in cooking and the ability to save money on eating out. As long as you’ve got a power outlet, you’re good to go.
5. Not limited by weather
Gas or charcoal grills were only something you could use when the weather was perfect. But electric grills make grilling an option all-year round. The Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker Plus Cover & Stand comes with a collapsible grill stand and a fitted weather-proof premium grill cover. With seven functions available, you can grill, air fry, bake or roast almost anywhere – then store your grill under the cover for safekeeping.
6. A safer way to cook
When cooking with electricity, you don’t have to worry about rapid increases in cooking temperature, gas leakage or any flames touching flammable items. Electric grills used outdoors or indoors promote safety when cooking and cleaning. This is a huge benefit for those with kids running around or those who lack time throughout the day to setup. This includes prepping and cleaning – a shorter time frame with less safety factors to consider.
7. Fully customisable to your needs
Despite what they’re commonly known for, grilling and smoking is not the only thing you can do on a grill. With easily adjustable settings and attachments on electric grills like the Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker, you can roast vegetables, bake cakes and even prepare salads. For a variety of recipes, use the integrated smart probe to achieve your perfect doneness, or when baking and frying.
8. Enjoy that authentic smoky taste
That bite of smoke-infused goodness is one of the most special parts of using a grill. Any meat or vegetable can be enhanced when cooked low and slow in the contained chamber of a grill. With Ninja’s range of outdoor electric grills – specifically, our Ninja Woodfire Electric BBQ Grill & Smoker, and the Ninja Woodfire Pro XL – you get that delicious smoky flavour, without needing to manage a flame.
Few electric grills on the market offer this ability, and you’d otherwise have to use a wood-fired oven to enjoy that distinctly smoky flavour. With the Ninja Woodfire or Woodfire Pro, though, simply place a few Ninja Woodfire Pellets in the attached smoke box, and a convection fan will quickly impart a smoky flavour into the food.
How to maintain your electric outdoor grill
There is so much you can do with an electric grill, its versatility and functions allow you to create a variety of new recipes, cook in new places and save a bunch of time and effort with cleanup and transport.
To maintain your Ninja grill, make sure you’re cleaning correctly as well. Before cleaning, always unplug your grill from the power source and let the appliance cool. Your grill plate, crisper basket and grease tray can be cleaned in warm soapy water. Whereas the inner lid of your electric grill, the smart probe and holder can be wiped down with a damp cloth. Your smoke box does not need to be cleaned, but we do recommend adding on a Ninja Air Grill Cleaning Brush to help with the rest.
Using the grill is known to be a joyful occasion, and there’s no need to be scarce in creating your signature dishes. Be creative with your grill, use it regularly for weeknight dinners and bring it along to your next shared celebration. Delicious food is one of the greatest pleasures in life and is often how we remember the moments we spend with our favourite people.
Outdoor electric grills are the future of cooking. Next, discover the benefits of using an air fryer.
