Best Oven Baked Easy Chicken Leg Recipe – Shared over 250,000 times!
Updated Apr 30, 2025
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This simple 5-ingredient recipe is seriously the BEST Chicken Leg Recipe! Sweet, tangy, and perfectly sticky, these baked drumsticks are a huge hit and this recipe has been shared over 250,000 times!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The sauce was so easy but so tasty! Sweet and tangy and perfectly sticky once it set for a few minutes. This was perfect for a quick and simple meal.
–Hannah
My 2 Best Tips For This Baked Chicken Leg Recipe
- Pick the Right Pan: You will need a pan with sides to keep in all the juice and sauce and big enough that the sauce spreads out so the chicken isn’t drowning in it. My pan is 11×15 inches, and it’s just right. The legs will caramelize best if half of the chicken is poked out of the sauce while cooking!
- Flip Halfway Through Baking: After the chicken legs cook for 45 minutes, take the pan out of the oven and flip the meat over so that the bottom that was in the sauce is now on top out of the sauce. This will make sure all of the meat, top and bottom, are sauce-y and sticky and oh, so good!
🩷 Melissa
Not only is this one of my kids’ favorite ways to enjoy chicken, but this recipe is also on its way to breaking the internet! For real.
I knew it was delicious and easy, but after being shared more than 250,000 times and receiving oodles of reviews from people who’ve made it, I almost can’t believe how much you guys love this recipe!
The sauce is truly addicting. You’ll want it on fried rice, steamed veggies, and maybe even in a cup with a straw to drink it—it’s THAT good. Pair it with my Broccoli Cauliflower Salad recipe for an extra yummy side dish!
I’d love to know if you try this recipe and love feedback, so leave a comment if you do!
Oven Baked Easy Chicken Leg Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lay the chicken legs out in a foil-lined baking dish with high sides. (The foil is to make clean up easier; it's not essential but helps a whole lot.) A high-sided sheet pan is the best option because it has sides to keep everything in, but it is big enough that the chicken isn't drowning in the sauce. It will caramelize best if half of the chicken is poking out of the sauce while cooking.
- In a glass measuring cup, measure out the honey, soy sauce, and ketchup. Add the minced garlic, and stir. If the mixture doesn’t combine well, microwave it on high for 30 seconds and stir again. Pour the honey mixture over the chicken legs.
- Put the chicken legs in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Take the chicken out of the oven, and rotate it so that the bottom that was in the sauce is now on top, out of the sauce.
- Put the legs back in the oven. Raise the heat to 425°F, and bake until the sauce is bubbly and starts to caramelize on the chicken legs. This should take about 15 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the oven, and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving. Serve the sauce the the chicken cooked in with the meal or over rice if you’d like.
Video
Notes
- Sweet and Spicy Baked Chicken Legs
- Lemon Garlic Baked Chicken Legs
- 4-Ingredient Honey Mustard Baked Chicken Legs
Nutrition
Recipe FAQs
This really just depends on how you’re cooking it. I like to start with a preheated 350° oven and bake the chicken for 45 minutes, rotate the legs, raise the heat to 425°, and put them back for about another 15 minutes until the sauce is bubbly and everything looks caramelized. Turning the legs is key to getting the sauce on the “top” of the chicken legs!
Yep! Thighs and drumsticks are dark meat in chicken, and they usually have a much heartier, juicier flavor and more tender texture than white meat.
Because these guys are thick and saucy, you’ll want a sheet pan with high sides to keep all the juices in and large enough so the chicken isn’t drowning in the sauce. The chicken should stick out of the sauce while cooking to get the best caramelized texture.
More Easy Chicken Recipes to Try
Pasta Dishes
Creamy Chicken and Vegetable Baked Pasta
Soups, Stews & Chowders
White Chicken Chili
Chicken Recipes
Kung Pow Chicken
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
I have two questions: ¿Should I add salt to the drumsticks before I add the sauce?
¿Can I leave the drumsticks seasoning with the sauce an hour before baking them?
You probably don’t need to salt them before, I’d make it once to see, it’ll depend some on your soy sauce. Also, no issue with them hanging out in the sauce a while before baking! Keep me posted!
This was so easy to make….fail proof AND it was quite the hit at the dinner table!
I made it this evening, extremely tasteful. Thank you !
I love this recipe so much and I will be making it again. I enjoyed it with brown rice and green beans. The sauce that was in the pan , I put on my rice. I would have licked the pan but thought that might be going a bit to far. lolol I only cooked 4 chicken legs and I cut the recipe in half. My husband is out on the road doing his part for covid-19 so this will make him happy when he comes home.
Yay! Thank you for coming back to leave a comment and bless your husband and you through this time.
ould I make this in a crockpot then put it in the oven
Yes! I do this often and it works great. And If I’m feeling lazy, I don’t even put it in the oven after.
Made this recipe last night and followed it exactly. Served with broccoli and jasmine rice. It was a hit! There was no left overs, everyone loved it and the best part was my 18 month old had 3 little servings which she gobbled up! That made me so happy seeing her clear her tray and ask for more. Her enjoying it means more to me than my husband or older children liking it lol. I’ll definitely be making this again and doubling the recipe.
I LOVE that story so much, it’s all about gathering around the table. You made my day!
Made this tonight. Was looking for a new recipe for chicken legs so I googled and found this. I used low sodium teriyaki sauce instead of the soy sauce. It was awesome with the teriyaki sauce. We have to watch sodium intake and I only had teriyaki in the house already. Thanks for posting this.
I love that you made it work with what you had on hand! Perk of a very forgiving recipe!
I’m so curious to know if I could double this then freeze half of it for an easy freezer meal to have in the rotation. Have you ever tried that?
I have not, but I think it would work just great!
Hi. Can you give me directions for cooking these drumsticks in an air fryer?
Hmmm does your air fryer come with some kind of bowl or dish to stick in the bottom? Or does a pan of yours fit in the bottom. That’s going to be the hardest part to figure out but it definitely needs to in a container because it’s so sticky. After that I’d do it about the same but reduce the cooking times by 25% or so.
These look fantastic and easy! Score! Do you know if these could be tossed in the marinade and then frozen in a gallon ziploc? I like to get some of my meals prepped on the weekend and this looks like the perfect midweek meal!
Thank you!
I think it’ll work great, I don’t think that there’s so much soy sauce as to make it overly salty if it sat a little while. I’d love to know if you try it and how it works out, that’s a great idea.
I made this last week and it was so good! My husband loved them. I actually used a spicy honey we had in the house because I didn’t have regular honey and it was delicious!
Ohhh spicy honey is a great idea, thank you for sharing!