The air fryer that finishes what the Traeger starts.
The Ninja Woodfire is an outdoor air fryer / mini grill that riclib uses primarily in one role: the skin crisper. After salmon (Salmão (Lašī), Salmão (Forele)) comes off The Traeger at 120°C (248°F) low and slow, it transfers to the Ninja at 240°C (464°F) air fryer mode for 3-4 minutes. The blast of dry convective heat crisps the skin without overcooking the flesh. Two appliances, two temperatures, one fish.
This is, if you think about it, exactly the sort of thing that would happen if you asked a software engineer to cook dinner. You wouldn’t just cook the salmon. You’d architect a pipeline. Stage one: gentle heat. Stage two: aggressive heat. Stage three: plate. It’s CI/CD for protein.
Position in the Arsenal
The Ninja is the third grill/appliance in the arsenal, after The Kamado (charcoal, high heat, primary) and The Traeger (pellet, low and slow, secondary). It is not a grill in the serious sense — it’s a countertop appliance that happens to produce extreme dry heat. But for finishing — crisping skin, flash-heating, adding the crust that low-and-slow cannot deliver — it fills a gap that neither the Kamado nor the Traeger can.
If the Kamado is the cast iron pan and the Traeger is the oven, the Ninja is the broiler. Nobody writes love songs about the broiler. But when you need 240°C of dry fury directed at a piece of fish skin for exactly three and a half minutes, you are suddenly very glad it exists.
The Three-Grill Shuffle
riclib uses multiple appliances in sequence when the job requires it — what might be called a three-grill shuffle. Low and slow on the Traeger, finish on the Ninja for crisp. Or Kamado for the sear, Traeger for the hold. The right tool for each stage, not loyalty to one device.
This is the Lizard’s philosophy made manifest in outdoor cooking: each tool does one thing well. The Kamado sears. The Traeger smokes. The Ninja crisps. No single device tries to be everything. The salmon doesn’t care about your brand loyalty — it cares about the temperature gradient across its cross-section.
A Riga balcony in March, -4°C outside, three appliances running simultaneously, a Portuguese developer shuttling salmon between them in thermal gloves. The neighbours have stopped asking questions.
The Squirrel Incident
The Squirrel, naturally, wanted to add a sous vide as a fourth step. “Imagine,” the Squirrel said, eyes gleaming with the particular madness of someone who has just discovered immersion circulators, “you sous vide to exactly 46°C, then Traeger for smoke, then Ninja for crisp. Three-stage thermal management!”
Denied. Three appliances is a workflow. Four is a cry for help.
See Also
- The Kamado — charcoal, high heat, primary
- The Traeger — pellet, low and slow, secondary
- Salmão (Lašī) — the salmon that started the pipeline
- Salmão (Forele) — the trout variant
- BBQ — the broader practice
