Baked Chicken Legs
Chicken drumsticks and thighs baked at 220C for 45 minutes with garlic, paprika and olive oil until the skin is crisp and golden.
Photograph credit: Fried legs by Dmitry-Belov · Pixabay Content License · Pixabay
Baked Chicken Legs: Step by Step
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Heat the oven to 220°C / 430°F. Pat the chicken legs dry with kitchen paper.
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Mix the olive oil, paprika, garlic powder, thyme, salt and pepper. Rub over the legs and under the skin.
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Set a rack over a roasting tray and lay the legs on it, skin side up, not touching.
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Roast for 45 minutes until the skin is deep golden and a thermometer reads 75°C / 167°F.
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Rest for 5 minutes and serve with the lemon wedges.
Keep an Eye on These
- Dry the skin well for the crispest finish.
- Roast on a rack so the heat reaches underneath.
- Check the temperature at the thickest part of the thigh.
Swaps and Variations
- Fresh herbs work in place of the dried thyme at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.
The Short Version
It looks like a roast chicken dinner and cooks like a tray bake, which is the attraction. Whole chicken legs, thigh and drumstick still joined, have more meat than wings and more flavour than breast, and they stay moist because the bone and skin protect them.
Pat the legs completely dry with kitchen paper. Skin that goes into the oven wet will steam, not crisp. Rub with olive oil, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper, working some under the skin where the meat is thickest.
Start the oven hot at 220°C / 430°F and leave the legs alone. Turning them too often tears the skin and releases juices. Roast skin side up on a rack set over a tray, so the heat can circulate and the fat drips away. A rack makes more difference than any seasoning.
The legs are done when the skin is mahogany and the juices from the thickest part run clear. A thermometer should read 75°C / 167°F. Rest them for 5 minutes, which lets the juices settle back into the meat, and serve with whatever roasted the tray below.
What to Serve It With
Roast potatoes · Green salad · Coleslaw · Corn on the cob
Keeping Baked Chicken Legs
Keeps for 3 days in the fridge. Reheat in a 200°C / 390°F oven for 12 minutes.
The Numbers per Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (most of the energy comes from foods with no recorded source). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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