Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker Review: More Than A Slow Cooker

Price When Reviewed

$149.99

Best Prices Today: Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker Pro

$129.99

The world can be divided into two kinds of people: those who love their slow cookers and those who have yet to discover their capabilities. Guaranteed to appeal to both, the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker 8-in-1 Slow Cooker (the US name attaches Pro to the end to distinguish between this and an earlier model) brings together slow cooking – a low temperature function that’s ideal for soups, stews, curry and tougher cuts of meat – with a host of other methods.

These include searing, which is something most slow cookers can’t do, so caramelising onions or browning meat has to be done on a hob before transferring to the pot, as well as steaming, baking, and proving dough. Extra versatility comes from a pot and lid that are oven-safe, and a serving spoon that slots into the lid for minimal mess.

Design & Build

• 8 litres/ 8.5qt capacity
• Large at 28x42x29cm/ 10.59×12.64x18in
• Light, non-stick inner aluminium pot

The first thing you’ll notice about the Foodi PossibleCooker is that it’s big: its pot can accommodate up to 8 litres/ 8.5qts. Compared to the average 3.5-litre/3QT or 6-litre/6QT slow cooker, this means that you can easily feed a large family or batch cook enough meals for a whole week ahead.

The downside of this is the amount of space it takes up on a worktop – it might only measure 28cm tall but its width is 42cm and depth 29cm (10.59 x 12.64 x 18in), so you’ll need to clear some room for it.

Capacity aside, it’s thoughtfully designed: there’s a well-labelled control panel at the front that you could probably understand without the instructions to hand, a non-stick lightweight aluminium pot that sits inside the base unit, and a glass lid on top that includes a ‘tool rest’ in its handle, so you can pop the serving spoon in it when not in use.

The base unit itself has a sleek grey-blue finish that matches the pot and is a refreshing change from so many stainless steel or white bases. And, should you need to move it around your kitchen, the whole thing is only 6kg/ 12lbs – making it lighter than comparably sized slow cookers that use a thick-walled, heavy ceramic pot.

Performance & Features

• Target temperature alert
• No manual cooking options
• In-pan searing and sautéing

While it’s first and foremost a slow cooker, the longer you use the Foodi PossibleCooker, the more you’ll appreciate how handy its other functions are, when used either alone or in tandem.

A prime example is the sear/sauté function: we used this for browning chicken thighs and chopped onion before making a stew. It took a while to heat up – about five minutes to reach searing temperature – but once it did, it browned the ingredients evenly and without the need to do this part of the cooking on the hob beforehand.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

Admittedly, it would have been faster to brown on the hob, and we noticed that adding ingredients tended to cause a sharp drop in temperature. Plus, it produced a fair amount of steam so we still had to run our extractor. However, for those who feel like they leave the flavour of meat and veggies behind in a frying pan, it’s a great way to make sure it ends up in your final dish.

What the sear/sauté function also demonstrated is how user friendly this appliance is: rather than just preheating and relying on guesswork to know when it’s ready, it beeps (using the same noise as other Ninja appliances) and the display changes to ‘add food’ when it’s at temperature.

There’s only a choice of high or low for sautéing, rather than a range of settings, but these should suffice for most tasks. The same ease of use is true for the steam function we tried: there’s a rack included for veg (plus a chart to advise on how long to steam each type for) and the programme preheats the water before the timer starts to count down the time set.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

We steamed broccoli florets for 5 minutes and they emerged perfectly cooked: not overdone and soggy, they still kept their shape but were soft enough to eat. A basket as well as or instead of a rack would be useful as some bits of broccoli ended up in the water, but otherwise, we felt this could easily replace a standalone steamer in your kitchen.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

Perhaps the only missing feature is the ability to cook manually, ie by selecting a time and temperature of your choice. The Foodi PossibleCooker requires a cooking function to be selected and then toggled by time and temperature to suit within that programme’s parameters. For example, when slow cooking a chicken stew, like most slow cookers, there’s only the option of high or low heat.

However, both of these have set time bands: low can only be 6-12 hours, while high is 3-12 hours, making cooking on low for say, 2 hours, impossible. Considering that desserts, such as rice pudding, can be made on a low heat for around 3 hours, this also means you can’t rely on a timer to stop the cooking.

We also felt it would be useful to have a table of the possible times and temperatures of each programme for reference: the information is dotted around the instructions but not all in one place.

That said, the Foodi PossibleCooker’s slow cooking function is especially good thanks to heat generated around the sides as well as the base. Unlike larger slow cookers, where the heat comes from below and can be patchy throughout, causing ingredients to dry out, the stew we cooked on low was evenly simmered without noticeable hot spots.

A final reason to like it? As we turned it off, the display even bid us ‘bye’.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

Price & Availability

The Foodi PossibleCooker is widely available to buy. If you’re in the US, it’s called the Foodi Possible Cooker Pro and it’s available direct from Ninja for $149.99, although some retailers are selling it at a higher price. But there are better offers. At the time of writing, the best prices are from Kohl’s and Amazon ($129.99).

In the UK, although it has an RRP of £149.99, it’s now widely available for £129.99, including from Ninja itself and Amazon.

It is a little pricier than other multifunctional slow cookers but it’s hard to compare like for like given the difference in functions available. What we can say is that Ninja countertop appliances do tend to justify their slightly elevated prices with their longevity.

Should you buy the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker?

Perhaps the best thing about the Foodi PossibleCooker is that whether you’re new to slow cooking or well versed in it, there’s something for you here. For the novice, there’s plenty of advice and programmes that make achieving great results simple, while for those upgrading from a basic model, there’s versatility that’ll give you the opportunity to expand your dinner repertoire, including finishing dishes off in the oven.

However, there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s a large piece of kit – if your kitchen is compact, you may struggle to make room for it – and pricier than most slow cookers, which start at around a fifth of the price of this.

That said, if you factor in all the other appliances it can replace – a steamer, a soup maker, maybe even your hob – it could prove to be your go-to for flavour-filled meals all winter and beyond.