Ninja has a knack for solving frustrating kitchen challenges. Air fryers are already meal prep MVPs, but Ninja’s new CRISPi Pro Glass Air Fryer tackles what happens after you cook a week’s worth of lunches and dinners: the transferring, the storing, the reheating, and the dish pile-up.
I meal-prep regularly and have been relying on my dual-basket Ninja Foodi air fryer. I like having two baskets because I can cook multiple components at the same time, but the process still means shuffling food between prep bowls, the air fryer, storage containers, and reheating vessels throughout the week. It’s a small annoyance that adds up. The CRISPi Pro’s pitch is simple: What if you could use the same container for all of it, from marinating to storing leftovers?
After a week of air-frying turkey bacon breakfasts, salmon dinners, and multiple meal prep batches, I have thoughts. Here’s my honest Ninja CRISPi Pro review: what I made, what I liked, my gripes, and my final verdict on whether you should buy it.
In this article
What is the Ninja CRISPi Pro?
The CRISPi Pro is a glass air fryer system designed to handle your entire cooking process from start to finish: prep, cook, store, reheat.
Here’s what comes in the box: the air fryer base, a 2.5-quart container for single servings or smaller portions, a 6-quart container for larger meals or meal prep, storage lids for both containers, and a removable, modular base that adjusts to fit different-sized containers. The bigger the container, the lower you position it on the air fryer spine.
The CRISPi Pro has six cooking modes:
- Max Crisp: for packaged and frozen foods
- Air Fry: for fresh proteins
- Bake/Proof: for baked goods
- Roast: for large proteins and vegetables
- Recrisp: for leftovers
- Dehydrate: to remove moisture from fresh ingredients
How is it different from other air fryers?
Instead of the typical metal or plastic basket, this appliance uses glass cooking containers with storage lids. The idea is that you prep your food in the glass containers, cook it, then pop everything straight into the fridge. So no transferring food between dishes, and no extra cleanup.
The glass container system has clear advantages and one significant limitation. On the plus side, the modular design lets you swap container sizes based on what you’re cooking. You can use the 2.5-quart for a single portion of salmon or the 6-quart for a week’s worth of roasted vegetables. Because the containers double as storage, you’re not transferring leftovers to yet another dish, which means less fridge clutter. The glass also lets you monitor your food as it cooks. That way, you can pull those potatoes before they go from golden to charred. And aesthetically, it’s sleek—this actually looks nice on a counter.
The downside? At the end of the day, this is a single-basket air fryer. You’re working with one container at one temperature at a time. If you’re used to dual-basket models like the Ninja Foodi 2-Basket Air Fryer (my daily driver before the CRISPi Pro) that let you cook chicken at 350°F in one basket while roasting Brussels sprouts at 425°F in the other, this will feel limiting.
Before the CRISPi Pro, I relied on my Ninja Foodi for quick weeknight meals. I liked the dual baskets, but the machine came with a learning curve. The Foodi has a different button for every function—air fry, roast, bake, dehydrate—and it takes time to master setting each basket to different modes, times, and temps. The CRISPi Pro uses a dial-and-button combo that’s simpler and more intuitive.
April Benshosan
What I made (and what worked)
I put the CRISPi Pro through its paces with meal prep batches and random weeknight proteins and vegetables. Here’s what I tested:
