Look, I technically didn’t need to be out here air-frying french fries in the snow. But I wanted to know that it was possible—that someday, in case of dire emergency, I could crisp up some Buffalo wings outside in a blizzard.
I had been guardedly optimistic about the portable Ninja Crispi air fryer when it was announced. The device is a radical departure from other basket or oven-style air fryers: Its heater and fan are just a detachable lid placed atop a separate cooking dish of borosilicate glass. It’s nifty idea, but would the glass offer enough insulation to keep temp while cooking?
Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
And so here I was on my frozen back patio, setting down a Crispi onto a thin dusting of ice as an extreme test. Besides: I had heard, from my mountain-loving editor, tales of soggy wings at base camp as other air fryers failed to heat up enough near the ski slopes. Some people apparently lead lives like this.
And yet no worry was needed. Even sitting in subfreezing Philly weather, the Crispi lived up to its name. The air fryer’s internal temperature crested 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The fries were golden-crisp, and so were the nuggets. There was much jubilation.
This experiment, finally, was the clincher: I love this little thing.
The Ninja Crispi, released last fall, turns out to be one of the most useful compact cooking devices I’ve seen in some time. It is henceforth invited to any and all potlucks and grid-connected campsites. And if I ever regularly go back to an office, it will become my office air fryer. I also expect it to be a regular sight in college dorm rooms and tiny New York apartments.
Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
A New Concept in Air Frying
So what makes it interesting? The Crispi is a wacky outlier in the world of air fryers, one of few true innovations since the first wave of basket fryers changed the American countertop landscape a decade back.
As other recent air fryers have gone large, adding dual baskets or rotisserie spits, the Crispi went very small. Small tends to be where air fryers work best. The 1,500-watt Crispi weighs a mere 3 pounds or so and looks a bit like a Pilgrim hat with an 8-inch brim. The bottom of the “hat” is the air fryer’s fan and heating element. The top is the control panel. The device will fit in some, but not all, purses.