Lemon Garlic Baked Chicken Legs
on Mar 16, 2019, Updated Jun 12, 2024
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My quick and easy Lemon Garlic Baked Chicken Legs are full of flavor, easy to make, and are always a hit with the whole family. This oven-baked chicken recipe will take you just one hour!
With how expensive groceries can be, it is nice to have a few low cost dinner ideas on the roster that still taste amazing. This baked chicken leg recipe is just that! The baked chicken uses just a handful of inexpensive, flavorful ingredients to create a tasty, tender, filling meal in no time!
This is also a really easy meal to plan your favorite seasonal sides around. Serve it with some homemade fries and watermelon in the summer, and a loaf of crusty bread and butternut squash in the winter. With a classic main dish like this, you really can’t go wrong with the sides.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Low cost and full of flavor.
- Quick and easy to make.
- Can be served with a wide variety of sides.
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken Legs—Low cost and full of flavor!
- Salt and Pepper
- Lemons—You will use both the zest of juice of your lemons.
- Garlic—Freshly minced.
- Thyme—Fresh time works best, but you can also omit it or use dried thyme.
- Honey—Adds a hint of sweetness to your chicken.
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
How to Make Lemon Garlic Baked Chicken Legs
Step #1. Pat your chicken dry and combine the salt, lemon zest (but not juice), minced garlic, pepper, and thyme in a small bowl.
Step #2. Rub the spice blend into the chicken and bake your chicken in a large dish until it has cooked all the way through.
Step #3. While the chicken is baking, whisk together about a third of the lemon juice and all of the honey. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and cook for another 10 minutes on each side.
Step #4. Spoon the juice from the pan over the chicken, serve, and enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
Thawed chicken legs that are an average size always take really close to an hour to cook in my experience (when the temperature is at 350 or above). If your chicken legs are really large or partially frozen, that’s going to increase your cooking time by around 15 minutes. When cooking bone-in chicken, I always plan on a full hour to cook, with a little extra time just in case.
Of course! You can also use chicken thighs or grab a pack of party wings. We like to use chicken legs since they are so cheap and full of flavor, but you can really use any kind of chicken in this recipe.
Baked chicken legs are great because they are completely customizable! If you don’t have any lemon or thyme then you can still throw together a delicious dish. Try using some breadcrumbs to make some crispy Panko chicken legs or bring out the slow cooker for some juicy, tender slow cooker chicken legs
Expert Tips
- I don’t feel like there’s a good sub for the fresh lemon here. The mix of the zest and the juice of the fresh lemon are so great. I don’t think dried lemon or bottled juice would have the same effect.
- No thyme on hand? Skip it all together OR pick another favorite herb. This would be great with fresh or dried rosemary, basil, or parsley.
- Wondering if your chicken is done? Investing in a little thermometer is the best way to make sure your meat is not over or under cooked. I have a really basic thermometer and it’s such a cooking game changer.
- Don’t worry about covering your pan with tin foil before you throw the chicken in the oven.
More Delicious Chicken Recipes to Consider
Chicken Recipes
Shredded Chicken Tacos
From Scratch Recipes
Chicken Marinade
Chicken Recipes
Chicken Meatballs
Soups, Stews & Chowders
Chicken Wild Rice Soup
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Lemon Garlic Baked Chicken Legs
Ingredients
- 2-2.5 pounds of chicken legs, about 8 legs
- 2 teaspoons salt
- zest and juice from 2 large lemons, or 3 medium, separated
- 2 large cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, optional
- 2 tablespoons honey
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Pat your chicken legs dry with paper towel and set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the salt, lemon zest (but not juice), minced garlic, pepper, and thyme. Use the back of a spoon to smash the mixture together and release any moisture the zest or garlic might have into the herbs (a mortar and pestle works well here but isn’t a must). The goal is to have a spice mix that is well blended using the garlic to bring it all together.
- Rub the spice mixture all over the chicken and set the chicken legs inside a baking dish (9×13 or 8×11 both work).
- Bake the chicken for 40 minutes.
- While the chicken is baking, mix together 1/3 cup of the lemon juice and the honey. If the honey is too thick, warm it just a bit so that it’s mixed into the juice well.
- After the 40 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven. Turn the chicken legs over in the pan and then drizzle the lemon juice mixture over the chicken. Return to the oven for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven again. Flip the chicken over again and spoon the juice that has collected in the bottom of the pan over the chicken. Return to the oven and bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and reaches 165 degree F. on an instant-read thermometer.
- Remove the chicken from the oven and spoon the pan juice over the top one more time. Enjoy hot.
Notes
- I don’t feel like there’s a good sub for the fresh lemon here. The mix of the zest and the juice of the fresh lemon are so great. I don’t think dried lemon or bottled juice would have the same effect.
- No thyme on hand? Skip it all together OR pick your own favorite herb. This would be great with fresh or dried rosemary, basil, or parsley.
- Wondering if your chicken is done? Investing in a little thermometer is the best way to make sure your meat is not over or under cooked. I have a really basic thermometer and it’s such a cooking game changer.
- Don’t worry about covering your baking dish with tin foil.
