Baked Chicken Legs with the best garlic-lemon-dijon marinade that is easy and excellent. Roasting the chicken legs results in crispy skin and a juicy center.
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Chicken is on the regular rotation at our house. We love chicken dinners like Chicken Tetrazzini, our favorite Chicken Parmesan, and Chicken Alfredo Pasta because they are simple, tasty, and inexpensive.
Why You’ll Love this Chicken Recipe
There’s something so comforting and welcoming about the aroma of Roast Chicken in the kitchen, and you’ll get compliments on these chicken legs before they even come out of the oven.
The marinade really makes this recipe. Have you tried mustard on chicken? It’s mouthwatering. Everything about this recipe is good from the tasty marinade and easy prep to the juicy dark meat center and crisp salty chicken skin.
The Best Chicken Marinade
Here’s our secret – we use the same marinade on our famous Baked Salmon. We were thrilled to find out it’s amazing on chicken as well. P.S. This also happens to be low carb, paleo, and keto-friendly.
- Olive oil – we used light oil which has a higher smoke point, not extra virgin
- Garlic – pressed or finely minced cloves
- Parsley – flat-leaf or Italian parsley
- Lemon juice – freshly squeezed is best.
- Mustard – Dijon mustard adds great depth of flavor
- Salt and black pepper – season generously as some of the marinade is lost to the baking sheet.
How to Make Baked Chicken Legs
Chicken legs are our favorite because they are dark meat so they naturally have great flavor. Coat them in this amazing marinade and these may just be the tastiest chicken drumsticks you’ve had.
1. Make the Marinade: Stir together all of the marinade ingredients in a bowl.
2. Marinate the Chicken: Place chicken legs in a large mixing bowl or a large Ziploc bag. Pour the marinade over the chicken and toss by hand to evenly coat the chicken and get some of it under the skins. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate for 6 hours or overnight, turning the legs once.
3. Bake Chicken Legs: Preheat the oven and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil or a Silpat liner. Arrange chicken skin-side-down. Brush chicken legs with any extra marinade left in the mixing bowl. Bake 25 minutes at 400˚F skin side down, then turn the chicken legs over and bake another 25 minutes.
For Extra Crispy Skin: bake on a rack for crisp skin all around then broil on high heat for 2 to 3 minutes until the skins have browned.
Air Fryer Instructions
Air fry chicken legs at 375˚F for 20-25 minutes, flipping the chicken halfway through. Cook until the internal temperature reaches at least 165˚F. You’ll need to cook in batches for most air fryers to keep them in a single layer so air can circulate.
Can I Substitute the Chicken Legs?
If you want to make this recipe with different cuts of chicken, you’ll want to adjust the timings and cook to a safe internal temperature of 165 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. If using chicken breast or tenderloins, cut the marinating time in half.
- Chicken breasts: bake for 25-30 minutes
- Chicken tenderloins: bake 15-20 minutes
- Bone-in, skin-on thighs: bake 45- 50 minutes
- Boneless chicken thighs: bake 20-25 minutes
Serve With
- Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes – so quick and easy
- Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad – fresh, light, and satisfying
- Panzanella Salad – with tomatoes and homemade croutons
- Corn on the Cob – perfect corn in 15 minutes
Tips For Oven-Baked Chicken Legs
- Pat dry chicken: use paper towels to pat dry chicken before applying marinade.
- Give it time to marinate: The secret to excellent chicken legs is lengthy marinating (at least 6 hours and ideally overnight). For even more flavor, massage the marinade under the skin of each chicken leg.
- Use the pan drippings: brush chicken with the lemony sauce drippings in the baking pan after they come out of the oven.
For Easy Cleanup: line the baking sheet fully with foil before baking to avoid scrubbing the pan.
Make-Ahead
- Refrigerate – cooked chicken can be stored covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days.
- Re-Heating – place leftover cooked chicken in the oven or air fryer at 375˚F until warmed through.
More Chicken Recipes
- Spatchcock Chicken – The best way to roast a whole chicken!
- Mom’s Chicken Drumsticks – the onion marinade is so tasty
- Air Fryer Chicken Wings – with a crispy exterior
- Instant Pot Whole Chicken – don’t skip the pan-dripping gravy
- Chicken Casserole – a favorite potluck and party dish
- Lemon Chicken – an easy, one-skillet chicken recipe
- Baked BBQ Chicken Thighs – saucy and delicious
Baked Chicken Legs with Best Marinade
Ingredients
- 4 lbs 14 count Chicken Legs or drumsticks
- 1/4 cup olive oil, (Use light oil, not extra virgin)
- 4 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
- 4 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 3 Tbsp lemon juice from 1 large lemon
- 2 Tbsp dijon mustard
- 2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine all of the marinade ingredients and stir or whisk together until well blended .
- Transfer chicken legs to a large mixing bowl or a large ziploc bag. Pour the marinade over the chicken and toss with your hands to evenly coat the chicken, pushing some of the marinade under the skin of each chicken leg for richer flavor. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate 6 hours or overnight, tossing chicken once while marinating.
- Preheat oven to 400˚F and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil or a silpat. Arrange chicken skin-side-down and bring chicken to room temp while oven preheats. Brush chicken legs with any extra marinade left in the mixing bowl. Bake at 400˚F in the center of oven for 25 minutes skin-side-down then turn the chicken legs over and bake additional 25 minutes skin-side-up. For crispier skin, broil on high heat 2 to 3 minutes or until skins have browned.*
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Hi
I have only chicken thighs boneless skinless and chicken breast.
I already marinated them.
How should I cook them?
Hi Bruria! You can use the search bar at the top of the page to look through my other recipes that uses chicken thighs or chicken breast.
I made the recipe with chicken breast and chicken thighs boneless skinless and it came out delicious.
That’s wonderful, Bruria! Thank you for sharing.
Can I put these in the slow cooker? With what liquid? Thank you.
Hi Katrina, I haven’t tested that to advise. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
This is one of the best chicken recipe I have ever tried. I used legs not drumsticks and marinated them for 24hours. The result was moist and wonderfully flavoursome.
We had the rest cold with a salad the next day.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Graham!
Very good! I use quite a few of Natasha’s Kitchen recipes and I knew this would be a winner. I sprinkled parmesan cheese on the warm legs and enjoyed them. Really I rolled the the the leg in Parmesan !!
Hello Sarah, thanks so much for your trust. I hope you’ll love all the recipes that you will try!
I thought the chicken was too salty. I was worried it would be too salty when I read the recipe but decided to give it a shot. Could have been because I marinated the chicken for too long? It was probably close to 24 hours as I wanted it to marinade overnight. Otherwise the flavor was nice but next time I’ll cut the salt in half.
Hi Michelle, if you are cutting down the amount of chicken I would recommend reducing the salt, otherwise as written it is about 3/4 tsp of salt per pound which is pretty common for skin-on chicken legs. That said, you can cut it down if you prefer less salt. You are correct that with lengthy marinating this would become more flavorful and tender as it marinates. This recipe is written for baking right away and produces a crisp salty skin which we really enjoy but again, you can cut it down to 2 tsp or even half if you prefer.
What happens when you use extra virgin olive oil? I’m just noticing the note for light olive oil. Extra virgin is all I have at the moment. I guess we’ll see how it turns out.
Hi Natasha, Extra Virgin Olive Oil is likely to get a bit smoky since it has a lower smoke point! It’s best to use a higher smoke point oil.
I never (and I mean never) leaving ratings on recipes – mostly due to laziness, but I had to leave a rating for this recipe.
It is, by far, *THEE BEST* marinade I have ever tried. Ever. Both of my kids asked that I make these drumsticks again probably ten times within 5 minutes. I’ve never seen them eat so fast. It’s truly that good.
We appreciate your great comments and review, Steph. Thank you!
Made these tonight with drumsticks and thighs. Followed directions and broiled for 5 minutes and came out delish!! Loving your recipes. Thank you for not putting a million ingredients in your recipes, they are easy and delish!!
You’re very welcome, Karen! I’m glad you love the recipes.
I’m going to try this with boneless Chicken thighs, love the dark meat.
I hope you love it, Patti!
Hi, can I use Chicken wings instead? Not a fan of dark meat. Also, how many carbs are in this recipe? It’s not listed.
Love your recipes.
Barbara
Hi Barbara, I bet that could work with chicken wings. I would keep the cooking time the same but watch it closely. The skins on the chicken wings should get nice and crispy. I think it would still be great. I don’t have the carb count here but this happens to be low-carb, paleo, and keto-friendly.
Can chicken wings be substituted? Adjusting the time if necessary. I’ve used many of your recipes with great success.
Hi Lil, I bet that could work with chicken wings. I would keep the cooking time the same but watch it closely. The skins on the chicken wings should get nice and crispy. I think it would still be great.
Made this last night for dinner with 10 chicken legs and it was so delicious! I used sea salt and broiled it about 5 minutes after cooking it about 40 minutes. The lemon juice, garlic and Dijon mustard gave it such a wonderful flavor that I look forward to making it again!
That’s wonderful, Jewell! I’m so glad you loved the recipe.
Omg absolutely AMAZING. I didn’t change a thing and the chicken was so moist and flavorful. We baked 12 of them and grilled 2 and both ways it was absolutely delicious. Definitely saving this one!
Thank you for following the recipe as it is. Great to know that you loved it a lot!
This was very good and I will make it again I did not add any salt as my husband is stage 3 kidney failure and salt is not allowed. Still very good.
Thank you for sharing, Christine! 🙂
This is an excellent recipe. I have used dijon mustard in marinades for salmon or pork, but never chicken, so this is a revelation for me. Tired of the same, zillion-ingredient chicken marinade, I was looking for something new and fresh, and this is it. Very simple, very flavorful. (Definitely not too salty for me). Thanks, Natasha! PS Great for teenage, beginner-level chefs to try their hand at. It would be very difficult to mess this one up.
Thank you so much for sharing. I’m glad you love the recipe. 🙂
I made this with chicken thighs since that is what I had on hand. My husband cooked it on the bbq. So delicious! My youngest daughter is quite picky with her food & she ate it up! Would add a bit more garlic & lemon next time. I served it with a side of rice & Natasha’s Beet Arugula salad. So yummy!
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Kasia! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I made the chicken for dinner tonight…it was excellent! Served it with mashed potatoes, broccoli and butternut squash. My family loved it. Thank you!
You’re most welcome. Happy to know that your family enjoyed them!
For me, this turned out very well. I added extra garlic. Natasha, did you ever “do” the keto diet? My husband is on it right now and I am starting in two days.
If you did do it, how was it? How deprived should I be prepared to feel?
If I can eat recipes like this marinated chicken, I don’t feel too deprived!
Hi Jane! I’m glad you loved the recipe. I have some keto recipes on my website that you might enjoy, you can search them by clicking on “recipes” in the menu above.
This was disgusting. I followed this recipe to the last line on the recipe. Chicken was not that great. I’ll stick to my grandma’s grecian chicken recipe.
Hi George, I’m sorry to hear that. Can you be more specific as to what the issue was with the recipe? I’m more than happy to help trouble shoot or correct if there is an issue.
Hi Natasha. You are my favorite 5 stars cook. Whatever I need , you already have the recipe. Can I use the chicken drumsticks marinate for chicken wings? The drumsticks were delicious.
Thank you for that wonderful compliment, Ewa! That should work with wings! I would keep the cooking time the same but watch it closely. The skins on the chicken wings should get nice and crispy. I think it would still be great.
If I don’t have fresh parsley can I substitute with dried? Thank you, live your recipes 🙂
Hi Claudia, I prefer using fresh but I think that’s okay too.
It’s best to use 1/2 dried parsley to 1 of fresh.
Love the marinade but cooking the chicken legs at 400 is way too high. They were already at 145 after the first 25 minutes and it only took another 10 minutes for them to reach 170 degrees. It resulted in chewy cartilage(y). I’m trying it at 350 the next time.