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- What Are Chicken Leg Quarters?
- Why You’ll Love These Baked Chicken Leg Quarters
- Ingredients You’ll Need
- How To Bake Chicken Leg Quarters In The Oven
- What Temp To Bake Chicken Quarters?
- How Long To Bake Chicken Leg Quarters At 400?
- What Is The Recommended Internal Temperature?
- Storage Instructions
- Serving Suggestions
- More Easy Chicken Recipes
- Recommended Tools
- Baked Chicken Leg Quarters (Crispy, Juicy, & Easy!)
Much like chicken drumsticks and chicken thighs, these easy baked chicken leg quarters in the oven make for a simple and versatile dinner. Seasoned with basics from your pantry, they have a delicious golden and crispy skin — you’re going to love them! Serve the roasted chicken leg quarters with a healthy side dish and your healthy meal is ready to go.
What Are Chicken Leg Quarters?
Chicken leg quarters are whole chicken legs (thighs and drumsticks) that also have a piece of the back attached to them.
Why You’ll Love These Baked Chicken Leg Quarters
- Savory chicken flavor
- Golden, crispy skin and tender chicken
- Just 5 minutes to prep
- Made with just a handful of pantry staple ingredients
- Healthy chicken dinner
Ingredients You’ll Need
This section explains how to choose the best ingredients for crispy baked chicken leg quarters, what each one does in the recipe, and substitution options. For measurements, see the recipe card below.
- Chicken Leg Quarters – I prefer to use organic chicken for best flavor and nutrition, but you can choose the type according to your own preference.
- Olive Oil – Or avocado oil.
- Spices – Paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt, and black pepper. If you like a kick, 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper also makes a nice addition.
How To Bake Chicken Leg Quarters In The Oven
This section shows how to cook chicken leg quarters in the oven, with step-by-step photos and details about the technique. For full instructions, see the recipe card below.
- Prep. Preheat oven. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel to remove excess moisture.
- Season. Brush chicken with olive oil and season with paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
FYI: Drying the chicken helps the skin get crispy.
- Bake. Arrange chicken on an oven-safe rack fitted over a baking sheet, skin side down. Bake quarters in the oven for 15 minutes. Flip and bake until done.
TIP: Line the pan with aluminum foil (underneath the rack) if you like.
Lining the pan is not required, but makes for easier cleanup.
- Rest. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving. This helps the juices settle so that the chicken won’t be dry.
What Temp To Bake Chicken Quarters?
Bake chicken quarters at 400 degrees F. This gets the skin crispy and keeps the chicken juicy.
How Long To Bake Chicken Leg Quarters At 400?
Baking chicken leg quarters will take about 30-35 minutes, but it is best to use a meat thermometer, as the cooking time will vary a bit depending on chicken leg size.
What Is The Recommended Internal Temperature?
Like all chicken recipes, baked chicken quarters are safe to eat once they reach 165 degrees F. However, because leg dark meat has more connective tissue than white meat, it will be more tender if you cook it to 170-175 degrees F [*].
Storage Instructions
- Store: Keep leftover roasted chicken quarters in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- Reheat: Reheat in a 350 degree F oven for best results, or a microwave for a quick option.
- Freeze: Freeze cooked chicken in an airtight container for 2-3 months. Raw chicken leg quarters can be frozen for 3-6 months.
Serving Suggestions
All these oven roasted leg quarters needs is a healthy vegetable side dish! I served it with roasted broccoli and cauliflower, pictured above. You can also try one of these other simple sides:
More Easy Chicken Recipes
If you like baked chicken leg quarters recipes like this one, you might like some of these other easy chicken recipes:
Recommended Tools
- Baking Sheet With Rack Set – I love these nonstick baking pans. I have every size, but the set with rack is particularly useful for crispy foods, such as bacon in the oven or these chicken legs.
- Meat Thermometer – The best way to tell when your roasted chicken leg quarters are cooked perfectly is by testing with a meat thermometer.
Roasted Chicken Leg Quarters Recipe
Reader Favorite Recipes
The recipe card is below! Readers that made this also viewed these recipes:
Baked Chicken Leg Quarters (Crispy, Juicy, & Easy!)
You'll love this simple recipe for baked chicken leg quarters in the oven! You only need a few simple ingredients for perfectly juicy, crispy roasted chicken leg quarters every time.
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Ingredients
Tap underlined ingredients to see where to get them. Please turn Safari reader mode OFF to view ingredients.
Instructions
Tap on the times in the instructions below to start a kitchen timer while you cook.
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (218 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with foil and place an oven safe rack on top.
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Pat the chicken leg quarters dry with paper towels, which will help them get crispy.
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Brush the chicken drumsticks with olive oil. Season with paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
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Arrange the chicken on the rack, skin side down. Bake the chicken leg quarters in the oven for 15 minutes. Flip and bake for another 15-25 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees F (74 degrees C).
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Rest for 5 minutes before serving.
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Readers Who Liked This Easy Recipe Also Made:
Recipe Notes
Serving size: 1 chicken leg quarter
Nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy. Have questions about calculations or why you got a different result? Please see our nutrition policy.
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26 Comments
Ver
This was outstanding! Everyone at the table agreed that we will eat baked chicken more often because of this recipe. Thank you so much!
** how I wished I had followed your advice about lining the pan with goin under the baking rack. Clean up was q but of a task. But still worth it because the chicken was crispy, juicy, baked in perfection
Amber Bledsoe
I’m sure this recipe will turn out fine… however I have “leg quarters”.. that is what the recipe calls for… these are by no means “done” at this amount of time… I have now read other recipes that call for longer cooking times or higher temps… but mine were definitely not done with the stated time frame…
Jane
The chicken leg quarters were delicious, thank you!!
Lynn
I followed the instructions exactly (except I omitted the salt) and started checking the temperature after 40 minutes. After another 40 minutes, I finally got 170 degree readings. After letting it rest, it was beautiful with crispy skin, but it wouldn’t come off the bone easily and was red next to the bone. So frustrating! I’m going to have a lot of chicken broth, but not what I hoped for with 10 lbs of chicken.
Wholesome Yum D
Hi Lynn, Was your chicken breast previously frozen?
Dina
Perfect! Made as per the recipe. Would make it again without any changes.
Jessica Templet
I didn’t have an oven rack so I had to cook them a bit longer in my pyrex dish. But they still came out perfect. The seasoning was excellent and the skin was nice and crisp. Definitely one of the best chicken recipes I’ve tried. Thanks a million.
Doug Wilder
I like the verbiage you utilized around the comments section here to make sure everything’s honest and sincere. Oh yea…the chicken! Excellent!! I put diced potatoes on the aluminum foil, on the baking sheet, under the rack (so the juices from the seasoned chicken fell down and beautified the potatoes) YUM. Thanks!
Charlie
Definitely making this again. 😋🤤
Patrick S Broderick
The meat came out well, nice and juicy but the skin DID NOT get crispy. I usually don’t flip leg quarters, just bake skin side up the whole time. I’d definitely recommend not flipping the chicken, that seems to work better.
Sandy
Wonderful flavor and easy to prep. I was able to go to the garden, gather some fresh veggies and steam them while the chicken was in the Dutch oven on the fire! Great meal
Rosemarie Mielke
This was simple and delicious. The only issue I had was it took well over an hour to bake to get to 170°. But I was using a 3-quarter sized pan in my smaller wall oven,so the meat pieces were overlapped a bit.
Jayden
I love how basic this recipe is and the seasoning is amazing on this chicken! Thank you for sharing!
Amy L Huntley
These are so tender and juicy. Thanks for the great tips!
Donna
These worked out perfectly! Definitely a keeper
Andrea Thueson
These were so tasty and had the perfect texture. I will be making them again on repeat.
Kristyn
Simple ingredients, but lots of flavor!! We use it a lot!!
Glenda
This was so easy and your seasoning choices are the exact ingredients in my homemade all purpose spice blend, so it went together even more quickly for me. Absolutely delicious! We enjoyed them for a wonderful comfort-food Sunday dinner.
Amy
These are so juicy and packed full of delicious flavor! Thanks for the great tips!
Katie
These are always so juicy and delicious. We love baking chicken this way!
Kristyn
Perfectly seasoned & tender!! This chicken would be so good for so many different recipes, too!
Robin Donovan
Great recipe! The chicken turned out perfect!
Toni
It turned out really good! Everyone at my house loved it!
Taylor
This recipe was so simple yet SO delicious! The chicken came out perfectly tender and juicy, with great flavor. The crispy outside skin was my favorite part!
Scarlet
These are a great staple and I will be making the leg quarters again.
Jen Dart
So simple to make and the falvors are perfect! My new go-to recipe!