Easy Teriyaki Baked Chicken Legs

Teriyaki chicken legs is a perfect back to school recipe. The teriyaki sauce is cooked in minutes and the baked chicken legs are easy too. Just a couple of steps to prep the chicken and then pop it into the oven and let it bake until it's crispy, tender and juicy then slather on the sweet sticky savory teriyaki sauce!  Both kids and adults will love these oven baked chicken legs.!

I love fried chicken but let's be real, frying chicken is messy and eating fried foods all the time is not too healthy. I fry chicken every now and then but I prefer baking my chicken in the oven. The baked chicken still comes out nice and crispy without all the greasy mess. Baked chicken is so much easier and faster cleanup.

I use an easy method to get the skin of my chicken to crispy up and you can read about my method below in the recipe.

Summer is coming to an end and school is either back in session or about to start.  If life is getting in your way right now you are probably looking for an easy and delicious weeknight meal so I'm sharing my go to baked chicken recipe with you. I am sure you have most of the ingredients ready to be used.  I absolutely love teriyaki sauce. It's so versatile that it can be used on meats and vegetables.

My teen started school on Monday and he came home hungry as usual. I made extra teriyaki chicken the night before so he'd have something quick to eat after school. We had it for dinner too.  I still can't believe I like chicken legs now.

My mom used to make baked chicken legs all the times. I truly disliked them. These days I love them because they're inexpensive there's so many ways to cook them.  I usually like to cook 2 packages of drumsticks which lasts about 2 days.  Things tend to get hectic on weekdays, so I'd rather not worry about dinner too much. For this recipe I only used 7 drumsticks because only because I used the other half for another recipe.

Teriyaki sauce:
6 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
4 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 ½ tsp minced garlic cloves
½- 1 tsp crushed red peppers (optional)
2 tsp fresh minced ginger

Slurry:
4 tsp  cornstarch
4 tsp water

Chicken legs: 
1 ½ tbsp oil
6 chicken legs
1 tsp garlic powder
salt for taste
pepper for taste

Garnish:
one green onion sliced thin
sesame seeds 

Directions:

 Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Pat the drumsticks dry with paper towel. Season them with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Add chicken legs to a bowl and coat with oil. (pic 1)

Line a baking sheet with foil then place a baking rack on top. Spray the rack with oil. Place the chicken on the rack.  Bake chicken for for 20-25 flipping halfway and basting with the teriyaki sauce until chicken is done. (pic 2)

Add all of the teriyaki sauce ingredients (except cornstarch and water) to a small sauce pan over medium high heat.

Add the cornstarch and water to a bowl and mix until the lumps are gone. Once the teriyaki sauce mixture starts to boil add the cornstarch mixture stir well often until the sauce has thickened.(pic 3-5)

 Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds. Serve with broccoli and rice (pic 6)

Here's another way to coat the chicken in the sauce. Instead of basting, after the chicken if done,  add the teriyaki sauce to a cast iron skillet or any large pan you have over medium heat until it comes to a boil then simmer. Add the chicken legs to the cast iron skillet and toss until nicely coated with the teriyaki sauce. 

If you think this oven baked chicken with teriyaki sauce looks good, save it to your Pinterest Board or share it on Facebook. Don't forget to follow me on Pinterest too.

You may also like these other chicken recipes:

Bulgogi Chicken (An easy chicken marinade)

Asian Cucumber and Carrot Salad 

Sweet Chili Chicken Stir Fry 

Peruvian Fried Rice 

Sweet and Sour Chicken