Best Oven Baked Easy Chicken Leg Recipe – Shared over 250,000 times!
Updated Apr 30, 2025
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
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!
First time. Delicious and simple.
We love this recipe at my house. It’s great as written but for some reason all the soy sauce makes me think Asian style and I add some Korean pepper flakes, sesame oil and a dash of red boat fish sauce. Could do ginger too, why not. I also like to reduce the amount of honey to closer to 1/4-1/3 cup and I have used a reduced amount of brown sugar as a substitute just fine. It comes out almost teriyaki like. It’s really good with rice and broccoli is our favorite veggie side. This is a great, flexible recipe that I keep in my recipe book and come back to again and again, thank you!
Getting the honey today to make these tonight. Wondering if this glaze would work with a pork loin?
Yum yum yumm!! My daughter n I LOVED IT! Thank you!
None of the sauce stayed on the chicken it all fell in the bottom of the pan so it just looked like white chicken
Did you use the recommended size of pan for the recipe?
the slow cooker friendly text is repeated twice
I took the skin off and it was still finger licking good!😊
We made this and it was lovely, the problem is we don’t really eat the skin and that’s where all the flavour is. Is it possible to make this and use the same temperatures etc without the skin, I’m just wondering if anyone’s tried this and how it turned out, would the chicken be dry? Thanks
Hi, your recipe looks delicious, making it tonight!
Jsyk though, wings are white meat, not dark meat. It’s fast twitch muscle, like the breast. The leg and thigh are slow twitch muscle, therefore dark!
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Melissa, I really like this recipe; however trying to conserve calories. Is there a way to reduce the honey and still have the same taste/ texture?
I haven’t tried it but you could, maybe just cook it longer so the other ingredients reduce a bit?