Best Oven Baked Chicken Legs Recipe

5 from 5 vote

Best Oven Baked Chicken Legs Recipe

Best Oven Baked Chicken Legs Recipe is tender chicken legs that are tossed in the perfect seasoning mix. With simple pantry ingredients, they bake up with crispy skin, amazing flavor and are a perfect weeknight dinner idea!

Prep Time5

Cook Time1

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken, gluten-free

Servings: legs

Calories: 301kcal

Author: Lora

Ingredients

6 chicken legs
1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoon paprika sweet or smokey
1.5 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 small onion minced finely (or 1 teaspoon onion powder)
2 teaspoons garlic minced finely (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard or 1 teaspoon ground mustard
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary chopped finely or 1 teaspoon rosemary, dried
2 Tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped finely or 1 teaspoon parsley flakes

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 degree F.
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly spray with non-stick cooking oil. Set aside.
Remove drumsticks from packaging. Pat them dry with paper towels. Place into a bowl or resealable plastic bag. Add oil, seal the bag and toss to coat.
Add seasonings, herbs, garlic, onion, and mustard to the bag, close and shake to get chicken well coated with everything. Bake for 30 minutes.
Lower the oven temperature to 375F.
Bake until the chicken is cooked through and golden brown (and the skin is nice and crispy) and has internal temperature of 185 degrees F, may be another 30 minutes, so set a timer. Total cook time is about 1 hour-1 hour and 15 minutes (could be less time, depending on how big or small your drumsticks are). Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Use a baking sheet or even a pan that is 9x13 inch with sides is the best option because to keep the sauce in. It does caramelize a little as it bakes. It will caramelize best if half of the chicken is poking out of the sauce while cooking. My pan is 11x15 inches and it works best. If your pan is too large though your sauce will be too shallow, evaporate and burn.
Best thing for clean up is to line your pan with foil.
If you're new with baking chicken and knowing when it's done, best thing is to use a digital meat thermometer to be safe and make sure it's cooked through.
Once cooked and completely cooled, the chicken stays fresh covered in the refrigerator for 4 days.
When cooked and completely cool, you can also freeze it in a freezer-safe container for 1-2 months. Best way is to remove the chicken from the bones and shred it.
If you're low-carb, serve with sides like cauliflower rice, steamed broccoli, veggie noodles, roasted potatoes, a nice salad.
If you're not staying low carb, serve with jasmine rice, cous-cous, sweet potatoes.

Nutrition