How Long To Cook Chicken Legs In The Oven
Usually it takes about 40 to 45 minutes to cook average size bone-in chicken legs in a pre-heated 400º F oven although the time may vary depending on the size of the drumsticks and how hot your oven runs. I always recommend you take a quick peek after 35 minutes of baking to make sure the legs arent browning too fast.
The best and most accurate way to know when the chicken is ready is to test the internal temperature with a digital thermometer. The chicken should reach an internal temperature of 165°F when checked on the thickest and meatiest part of the drumstick, without touching the bone.
How To Bake Chicken Legs
This is an overview, and full ingredients & instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Coat them with olive oil and salt & pepper, and then rub the smoked paprika onto the skin.
- Bake on a foil-lined baking sheet at 400F for 35-40 minutes. Broil if desired, and let the chicken rest before serving. Easy!
Ingredients For Crispy Baked Chicken Drumsticks
- Chicken Drumsticks In order to get crispy skin, you need bone-in, skin-on chicken. You can trim some of the larger pieces of skin if needed.
- Coating All-purpose flour and baking powder. The baking powder reacts with the skin and draws out the moisture, which in turns helps the skin get nice and crispy.
- Chicken Seasoning Kosher salt, smoked paprika, garlic powder, and black pepper.
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How Long To Bake Chicken Drumsticks At 375
Typically, drumsticks bake in the oven quicker than any other parts of the chicken. More importantly, the size of the chicken determines how long you bake the chicken. Also, the type of oven used would also play a factor in how long your chicken would bake for.
Bake these chicken drumsticks at a high temperature of 375F/190C between 35 to 45 minutes. Bake the chicken for 20 minutes then flip sides and continue baking for another 15 to 25 minutes .
Alternatively, cook chicken legs according to the instruction on the packet. No matter how long you decide to bake your chicken for, ensure that it is cooked through and no longer pink.
Check for the doneness of the chicken by opening one up and if it no longer pink and clear water runs through it, then it is cooked. You can also use a meat thermometer and the internal chicken temperature should read 165F/74C
Ingredients For Baked Chicken Legs:
Chicken Were using skin-on chicken drumsticks here. The skin is crispy and flavorful and helps keep the interior nice and juicy.
Seasoning Youll need a mix of smoked paprika , garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, salt, and pepper.
Oil When cooking at higher temperatures, we like to use avocado oil has a higher smoke point than olive oil. We have had lots of readers use olive oil and been happy with those results as well.
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How To Bake Chicken Quarters
With just a handful of ingredients and a few minutes of hands-on prep time, you can transform four chicken leg quarters or thigh-drumstick pieces into an irresistible oven-roasted chicken dish. Use these steps as a guide and come up with your own chicken leg quarter recipes by using seasonings you love.
Alternatively, you can bake the chicken leg quarters or thigh-drumstick pieces in a 375°F oven. Increase the baking time to 45 to 50 minutes. Either way, because chicken pieces vary in size, be sure to check the chicken for doneness by inserting an instant-read thermometer into the thigh, avoiding the bone.
What Temperature To Bake Chicken Legs
In order to achieve juicy, flavorful meat, its important to cook chicken and any cut of meat by temperature. For dark meat chicken, such as chicken legs, an internal temperature of 175F is perfection.
As far as oven temperature is concerned, I like to set the oven to 350F. It is on the lower end for baking chicken, but I find it just right if you want to coat the drumsticks with a sweetened sauce such as my honey-dijon glaze or BBQ sauce.
At 350F, its high enough to cook the chicken but low enough so the sugars in the sauce wont burn but caramelize, lock in the juices, and give the chicken skin a flavorful crust.
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Helpful Tips For The Best Baked Chicken Legs
- Be sure to adequately season with salt in the marinade, we are using several pounds so theyll need a fair amount. The reserved sauce wont need very much.
- Use a dark baking sheet if you have one to encourage browning. Also roast one level up from the center.
- Still every oven is a little different so if you find they havent browned to your liking at the end then simply broil during the last few minutes, just keep a close eye on them.
- I recommend using larger chicken drumsticks here so you get more meat. It will also allow more baking and browning time to use larger ones.
- If you want crispy skin, hold the remaining marinade, if you want even more flavor use the extra reserved marinade .
- Test center of the legs to 165 near bone of thickest portion to ensure theyve cooked through.
- Soak the pan in water for easy clean up.
How Long To Bake Bbq Chicken Legs At 400 Degrees
Chicken legs are a dark meat and they take some significant time to cook. Typically it will take about 40 minutes for the chicken to reach an internal temperature of 165-175 degrees F. Use a meat thermometer for an accurate reading as cooking time will vary from oven to oven.
The good part about dark meat is that the higher fat content helps keep it juicy and can withstand some overcooking. This is good news for novice cooks and those that are nervous about under cooking poultry.
Chicken is safe to eat at 165 degrees F but drumsticks can cook even longer and still yield juicy chicken.
This leaves plenty of extra time to baste with the sauce at the end.
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Crispy Baked Chicken Drumsticks
This is just a great, simple baked chicken drumsticks recipe you can get in the oven quickly. A 3-ingredient seasoning adds terrific flavour and colour. Meanwhile, the secret to a lovely crispy skin is a touch of baking powder. Dont believe me? Read the reviews in my Truly Crispy Baked Chicken Wings which uses the same trick!
How Do You Know When Theyre Done
The best way to tell is to check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer. Baked chicken should be cooked to a temperature of at least 165 degrees, but for legs I let them cook longer. Sometimes there are red spots in the meat near the bone and if you cook them a little longer those disappear. The meat will still be really juicy and tender!
You can also just cut into one and check that its cooked all the way through. The meat should be thoroughly cooked to the bone and the juices should run clear. But, seriously, I recommend a thermometer it just makes life so much easier.
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Baking Chicken Legs From Frozen
If youre reading this and have a pound or two of frozen chicken legs you had planned to cook but its still frozen Ive got good news: you can cook frozen chicken, no thawing required!
When baking frozen chicken legs or any frozen chicken, you can expect the cooking time to increase by 50% of the original cooking time. For example, if you are baking these frozen at 375F, then instead of 40 minutes, it will take a full hour for the legs to cook through to 175F.
Grab more details and tips on cooking frozen chicken thats delicious and safe to eat in this post.
How Long To Pan Fry Chicken Legs
How long to cook chicken legs on the stove depends on factors such as the size of the chicken.
It takes about 30 minutes to pan fry chicken drumsticks that are medium sized. Cooking it for 30 minutes or longer ensures that not only will the outside be cooked, but inside well cooked and juice runs clear.
For chicken leg quarters, it takes the same time of 30 minutes of cooking over medium heat.
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How Long To Bake Chicken Legs At 350
As previously mentioned, an oven at 350F is on the low end, and it will take the drumsticks about an hour to reach the internal temperature of 175F.
However, this decreases the chance of them drying out, and if you are applying a sweetened glaze or sauce, it wont char while the meat remains undercooked.
How Long To Cook Baked Chicken Drumsticks
Baked chicken drumsticks take between 35 to 45 minutes when baked at 375 degrees. This cooking time is typically the same when baking at any temperature between 350 and 425 degrees. Keep in mind that cooking times will vary by oven. Chicken is fully cooked when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
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Making Ahead Storage And Reheating
Making Ahead: Because this recipe doesnt use any acid, you can season the chicken and store it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. When ready to cook, remove the chicken from the fridge 30 minutes before baking so it comes to room temperature before its placed in the oven
Storage: Leftover baked chicken drumsticks will keep, stored in an airtight container, in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
Reheating: Although you can enjoy chicken legs cold or at room temperature, drumsticks can be reheated in the microwave or uncovered in a preheated 350ºF oven for about 10-15 minutes. You can also use an air fryer for about 5-7 minutes at 375ºF
Making Crispy Baked Chicken Legs
When you have cooked the chicken legs to your desired degree of doneness, the next thing is to cook the back to crisp.
When you are ready to crisp the back,switch to broil. You can choose to broil at high temperatures or at lowtemperatures depending on how your oven-broiler works.
If youre broiling at low temperature, yourrack is best set close to the broiler coil. If, on the other hand, you arebroiling on high temperature then your rack should be no less than 8 inchesfrom the coil.
The temperature for high broiling isusually around 425 degrees while that of low temperature is 350 degrees.
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How To Make Crispy Baked Chicken Drumsticks
The trick to crispy baked drumsticks is to stretch the skin over the drumsticks as much as possible and then coat the skin evenly all over with the seasoned flour.
Seasoning Mix the spices and flour together in a bowl. Use a shallow bowl as its easier coat the chicken legs in the seasoning.
Coat drumsticks in oil The oil makes the seasoning stick to the chicken as well as helping the skin go nice and brown as it bakes. I find its easiest to rub it all over using my hands to ensure each drumstick is well-coated.
Stretch skin The more skin that stays put over the flesh, the crispier your drumsticks! So pull and stretch the skin to cover the flesh as best you can. Some of the skin will still shrink back as it bakes anyway, but if you skip this step totally youll end up with a mostly naked drumstick
Coat legs in the seasoning Dip, turn, use fingers for sprinkling on top as needed. Then shake off the excess, otherwise you end up with quite a thick layer of pasty-ish coating on the chicken legs.
Rack on tray Place the legs on a rack on a foil-lined tray. Why foil-lined? It makes your clean up life easier. Why rack? For crispy undersides!
Spray with oil Then spray the legs with oil. Be generous! It makes them more crispy and golden, almost like a frying effect!
What To Serve With Baked Chicken Legs
The ideas are endless to serve with baked chicken legs. I do prefer to keep the side dishes simple though.
Our family enjoys this easy 4 ingredient Parmesan Pasta. Yum. We also love mashed potatoes and green beans. It is simple but delicious.
Rice is also tasty. We actually keep this in the freezer so it is so easy on busy nights.
Learn how to freeze rice and you can make this meal even easier. I love to grab the rice from the freezer and we all can enjoy a really easy meal.
We do this for lots of meals and it helps put together a quick meal. If you are not freezing rice, it is such a time saver.
Sometimes we also add a simple side salad or learn how to steam broccoli in the microwave for another easy side idea.
This meal is also good with asparagus. This oven roasted asparagus is a family favorite and it is very simple and quick to make.
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How To Cook Chicken Legs & Breasts In The Oven
Oven cooking chicken is one of the simplest and most effective ways to get juicy and tender meat. But, it has to be done correctly. Chicken can handle a certain amount of slow-baking, but it is generally wise to add liquid or coat the chicken to trap the moisture using that method. Cooking chicken pieces in the skin is a way to keep it moist without adding the calories of a breadcrumb or batter coating. Baking chicken pieces at a high temperature helps them cook quickly, which also helps keep them from drying out.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Spray a roasting pan with nonstick cooking spray.
How Long To Bake Chicken Legs:
These baked chicken drumsticks only take a few minutes of prep and just about 45 minutes of bake time.
Were baking these chicken legs at 425 degrees. If our oven isnt good and hot, the chicken skin wont get crispy and no one wants rubbery chicken skin!
The meat should reach 165 degrees in about 45 minutes and then your chicken legs are ready to devour!
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How Long Should You Bake Chicken Wings For
How long to bake chicken wings depends on the size of the wings. For example, if you are baking 12 chicken wings that are about 2 inches in size, you will need to bake them for about 30 minutes. But, if you are baking 24 chicken wings that are 3 inches in size, you will need to bake them for about 45 minutes. The best way to know for sure is to use a meat thermometer. Chicken wings are cooked through when they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Is It Better To Bake Chicken Legs At 350 Or 400
The truth is that both temperatures work. Bone-in chicken drumsticks, thighs and wings can be baked at 350ºF and 400ºF. If cooking the chicken at 350ºF, you may have to add 5-10 additional minutes to the baking time. For this particular recipe, I prefer roasting the chicken at 400ºF because I want the skin to get extra crispy.
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How To Make Easy Oven
This is a simple 3 steps recipe
Preheat the oven at 200C/400F
To a small mixing bowl, combine smoked paprika, mixed herbs, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper, then mix together. Coat chicken drumsticks with the dry rub when you are to bake.
Arrange the drumsticks on a baking rack in a single layer over a baking sheet, spray with cooking spray/ olive oil. Alternatively, arrange on a lined baking tray with an aluminium foil or parchment paper.
And bake to perfection. i.e until golden brown and no longer pink in the middle.
Serve and enjoy with other sides of choice.
Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Legs
Like I said in my How to Make Homemade Shake and Bake Mix post, I love using prepackaged goods. I love pistachio pudding mix, I ADORE canned mushroom soup and I have a lot of fun baking with cake mixes. But hydrogenated oil and I do not get along. It’s to the point where I eat something with it accidentally I know. My stomach will tell me in about an hour, then I look at the package of what I ate and realize that it has hydrogenated oil in it. EVERY TIME without fail. TMI, right? It’s just not good for you and in a world of things that aren’t good for you I’m going to pick my battles and enjoy sugary desserts and too much wine on occasion instead of things with hydrogenated oil.
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