Baked Chicken Legs
This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page.
Healthy eating doesn’t have to be hard to accomplish. With a little planning, making a simple and tasty meal can be quite easy. Check out our other chicken recipes for more healthy meals for your family.
When I was younger, I always wanted to eat the chicken legs. However, the only way that we ever had chicken legs was fried, from KFC. I had no idea how else you could even prepare chicken legs. I thought fried chicken was the only way to do it.
Fortunately, I’ve learned that there are actually simple and delicious ways to make chicken legs, and now I can enjoy as many of them as I want without fighting with others. This recipe, like all of the others in this series, are about as simple as they come, and they taste great. And similar to our other recipes, they go well with a variety of different items. This recipe is really flavorful and juicy - eating it after it comes out of the oven is a real delight.
The other reason I really like this recipe is that chicken legs are some of the cheapest meat you can get at the store. I can regularly buy a pack of chicken legs (8-12 legs) for less than 4 dollars. That makes this recipe quite economical, in addition to being healthy and tasty.
This recipe calls for 3 ingredients total: chicken legs, soy sauce, and mirin. Mirin can be found in the Asian foods section of most any supermarket. You may have to look around a bit for it, but it’s a clear liquid. I have no idea what else it’s used for, but we buy it for this recipe.
How to prepare baked chicken legs
Turn your oven on to 375 degrees F. While your oven is preheating, place all of the chicken legs into a baking dish. Take your soy sauce and pour about a teaspoon of it over each chicken leg (maybe a little more). It won’t stick to the chicken leg, and that’s fine. Next, take the mirin and pour it slowly over each chicken leg - a similar amount to the soy sauce.
Once the oven is ready, place the chicken in the oven, and let it cook for about an hour. You’ll want the chicken legs to get a nice golden brown before you take them out (165 degrees F for the internal temperature of the chicken). Once your chicken is ready, take it out and serve it.
You can use the sauce in the bottom of the pan to pour on the chicken if you’d like, but you don’t have to. We generally don’t, but if you want a bit more flavor then that will do it. We generally eat this with potatoes or pasta on the side, as well as a vegetable, but most anything will do.
One variant on this recipe that we sometimes do is to use any part of the chicken that you have - it gives a nice flavor to any cut of chicken that you may have available.
Conclusion
Simple, delicious, and no fighting over who gets a chicken leg. Everyone can enjoy them, and you’ve fed them something healthy as well.
