Chicken legs are often one of the least expensive cuts of chicken. Coincidentally, they are also my favorite part of a rotisserie chicken because that dark meat is just so juicy and tender! Since I loooove roasted chicken, I often make Roasted Chicken Legs that are close in texture to the moist and tender rotisserie chicken that I so love. How do I accomplish that? Low and slow heat, my friends. Low and slow.
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“Oh. My. Stars. This was the best chicken I’ve ever made. I’ve always thought roasting chicken was a complicated, intimidating thing. But three ingredients?! And one of those ingredients is chicken?! A thousand times thank you. You took the fear out of roasting chicken, and we are already excited to make this again.”
Ashley
Easy and tasty chicken legs in the oven
For this oven-roasted chicken leg recipe, I keep things simple with just chicken legs, butter, and lemon pepper seasoning (though you can use any seasoning you like!) However, don’t let the short ingredient list fool you. As the chicken roasts, the butter melts and mingles with the lemony seasoning and chicken juices, making the most incredible sauce ever. Sure, you can use olive oil or coconut oil instead, but butter…yeah, butter is just special.
Recipe Tips & Suggestions
- For moist chicken legs, cook them slowly at a low temperature to stay juicy and tender. The connective tissues soften and break down into a tasty gelatin. The whole process is meat magic. You’ll also want to cover the meat tightly to prevent moisture from evaporating (either with foil or a lid), and baste once while the chicken legs roast.
- The method I use in this recipe has two phases: a low 300ºF for one hour (that’s the “low and slow” part), and then finishing off the chicken without a cover at 425ºF for about 30 minutes to crisp up the skin. If you’ve ever wondered how long to cook chicken legs in the oven for that perfect balance of tender and crispy, this two-phase method is the answer. It gives you the best of both worlds—tender, juicy insides and beautifully browned skin.
- As far as seasonings go, you can use just about anything! I used my favorite blend du jour, lemon pepper seasoning, but you could also use poultry seasoning, taco seasoning, Herbs de Provence, Za’atar, cajun seasoning, steak seasoning, or just salt and pepper!
- Want to roast more than two chicken legs? Just use a larger baking dish and don’t overcrowd the chicken. No need to adjust the cook time!
- This low and slow roasting method is designed for bone-in, skin-on chicken legs only. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts cook much faster and will dry out using this method. For instructions on how to cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts, see our recipe for baked chicken breasts.
Roasted Chicken Legs
Cost $3.46 recipe / $1.15 serving
Ingredients
- 2 bone-in, skin-on chicken legs quarters (about 2 lbs., (922g) $3.19)
- 1 Tbsp butter (room temperature, $0.12)
- ½ Tbsp lemon pepper seasoning ($0.07*)
Instructions
- Gather and prepare all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Lightly coat the inside of a casserole dish with non-stick spray.
- Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel, then smear butter over the surface of the skin. Sprinkle the lemon pepper seasoning liberally over both sides of the chicken pieces. Place the seasoned chicken in the casserole dish.
- Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for one hour at 300ºF. After one hour, remove the foil and discard it, baste the chicken, and turn the heat up to 425ºF.
- Continue to bake the chicken at the higher temperature for 20-30 minutes, or until the skin has achieved the desired level of brownness. Serve with the juices spooned over top or with bread for dipping.
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Equipment
- Oven-Safe Casserole Dish
- Aluminum foil
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Oven Roasted Chicken Legs Step-by-Step Photos
Gather all of your ingredients and preheat the oven to 300ºF. Lightly coat the inside of a casserole dish with cooking spray.
Prep the chicken: Now pat 2 skin-on, bone-in chicken leg quarters dry with a paper towel.
Smear about 1 Tbsp of room temperature butter over both pieces (1 Tbsp total, not per piece).
Season the chicken: Then season each side liberally with lemon pepper seasoning (about ½ Tbsp), or your favorite seasoning blend. Place the seasoned chicken in a casserole dish coated with non-stick spray.
Roast the chicken: Cover the dish tightly with foil, then bake in the preheated 300ºF oven for one hour.
After an hour, remove the foil and discard it, then baste the meat with the pan juices. The meat should be quite tender, but the skin will be soft and blonde, like the photo above. To achieve that nice brown crispy skin, remove the foil and turn the oven temperature up to 425ºF.
Bake the chicken for an additional 20-30 minutes at the higher temperature (you can leave it in the oven as it heats up to the higher temp), or until it develops the level of brownness that you like on the skin.
The liquid that ends up in the bottom of the casserole dish is PURE GOLD. It’s like, one of the best things I’ve ever tasted, so don’t let that go to waste. I like to spoon it over whatever I’m serving the chicken with (if serving with rice or pasta), or serve some bread to sop it up. You can also pour it into a skillet, add a little white wine, and simmer it until it’s reduced to make a delicious pan sauce. Something about that butter, lemon, and pepper is just per-fect.
How to Serve Roasted Chicken Legs
These oven-roasted chicken legs go with most sides, but I’ve got a few favorite pairings. Keep it classic with crispy roasted potatoes or a scoop of fluffy white rice to soak up all that buttery lemon sauce (trust me, you’ll want every drop). I also love a side of crunchy sautéed green beans! If you’re in the mood for pure comfort food, I’d go for something creamy like our twice baked potato casserole. Or try it alongside oven roasted ratatouille for a Mediterranean twist.
Storage & Reheating
Store any leftover chicken legs in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. To reheat, place them on a baking sheet, cover loosely with foil, and warm in a 350°F oven for about 15–20 minutes, or until heated through. You can also freeze cooked chicken legs for up to 4 months. Let them cool completely first, then wrap them tightly to prevent freezer burn. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
More easy and affordable Chicken recipes
Our Roasted Chicken Legs recipe was originally published 1/27/16. It was retested, reworked, and republished to be better than ever 11/10/25.
This has been on my rotation for years now. It’s so simple but so flavorful – always such a treat! I love how simple and inexpensive it is, but you’d never know with how delicious it is!
Superb recipe! Perfect cooking instructions for temperature(s), and cooking time. Chicken turned out moist, thank you.
Pretty good. I made it in my cast iron pan with a sheet of aluminum covering the top since I don’t have a casserole dish.
Superb. But would be better with a meat thermometer, switching to high heat when the chicken gets to say 130 and then finishing at say 165. After an hour at 300 my chicken was already 165.
Absolutely delicious!! An added bonus is how quick and easy it is to prepare. I used my Dutch oven, with lid on for the low temperature, then off for the high. Will make again for sure 😊
Absolutely delicious, but I think you messed up on the nutrition facts??? I was checking because my dad and my sister are about to start eating low-carb, and there is NO WAY those have that many carbs.
Delicious
I’m not a fan of dark meat
Made with drumsticks and cool running chicken season
100% would make again
So juicy so flavourful
🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷😘
Love this recipe!
Instead of using lemon pepper I used fresh basil and thyme from my garden.
I put the herbs under the skin and baked it for an hour skin side down with some chicken broth, butter, oil and garlic (instead of basting it, weird italian trick for juicy meat)
I then flipped it for the 45 minutes eith salt and pepper at 425 for the nice golden brown skin and served with carrots and ceasar salad!
I love the sound of using fresh herbs. How much of each did you use?
Love the simplicity of the recipe, I’m always put off with multiple ingredients. Very tasty and tender
This was so delicious!! I didn’t have any lemon pepper, so I seasoned with salt, pepper, and dried Italian seasoning. Then I sprinkled fresh rosemary, thyme, and oregano sprigs from my garden all around the chicken, which added great flavor to the sauce, which I served over white rice. Scrumptious!! Thank you for such a great, easy recipe!
This was awesome! Perfectly crispy skin, fall-off-the-bone tender meat. I don’t think I covered mine tightly enough, though, because there wasn’t much liquid at the bottom of the pan. Oh well, still delicious as is! And so versatile – I just used plain ol’ salt & pepper this time, which was plenty flavorful, but this could work just as easily with garlic salt, za’atar, Cajun spice blend, or any of the other mixed you mention above. Another winner! (I’m struggling not to make the obvious “winner winner, chicken dinner” joke here, because this makes one hell of a chicken dinner!)
Used this many times, and really happy with the recipe.
Of course, I change it a bit, like everybody else.
45 mins at f130, then 20 mins at f200
Use Italian seasoning as spices, and never bother to baste or turn. Just bung it in the oven and let it get on with it!!
This was delicious & my entire family (2 teenage boys) loved it. I used 4 leg quarters, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, & paprika. Followed instructions exactly using a 9 x 11 casserole dish. Made sure the foil covering was nice & tight, lots of gravy to pour over mashed potatoes. Thank you so much! Will definitely be making this again. BTW, cheapest meal I’ve made in a while, found leg quarters for $0.99/lb & a 5 lb bag of russet potatoes for $1.29- score!
Im used to putting a bit of water at the bottom of pan. No need?
I did not add water to mine. :)
DELICIOUS! cant believe it took me so long to try this recipe