Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken Legs

by Sabrina Snyder

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5 from 5 votes
8 servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
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Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken Legs are garlicky, sweet, sticky, and flavorful. The whole family will love this for a weeknight meal!

Slow Cooker Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken is hands down the most well-loved Dinner Recipe we’ve ever made, and for good reason! The easy garlic brown sugar glaze goes great on pretty much everything.

Sabrina’s Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken Legs Recipe

Cooking bone-in, skin-on chicken is a quick and fail-proof way to get tender, naturally flavorful meat. A lot of the flavor and moisture comes from the skin, so you don’t need much oil or butter, just enough to bind the glaze. And speaking of the brown sugar garlic glaze, this sticky, sweet, and garlicky sauce is one of the best flavor combinations ever!

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken Legs Recipe

Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken Legs are garlicky, sweet, sticky, and flavorful. The whole family will love this for a weeknight meal!
Yield 8 servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
marinated cooked poultry cooked on a dish with garnish
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Ingredients
 

  • 8-10 chicken legs
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar , packed
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder , or 4 cloves garlic, minced

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×13 baking pan with vegetable oil spray.
  • Season chicken with salt and pepper.
  • In a large bowl mix together oil, soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar and garlic powder.
  • Toss chicken in sauce and place chicken legs into baking dish.
  • Pour any remaining sauce over the chicken pieces.
  • Bake for 35-40 minutes until caramelized.

Nutrition

Calories: 369kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 120mg | Sodium: 791mg | Potassium: 315mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 138IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 25mg | Iron: 1mg

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About this Recipe

These chicken drumsticks are one of the most delicious and easy baked Chicken Recipes. With less than 5 minutes of prep work and no marinating, the chicken is ready for the oven. In less than an hour total time, you get fall-off-the-bone juicy meat packed with garlic and caramel flavor. The sauce recipe uses garlic powder, ketchup, brown sugar, and soy sauce to make a beyond easy, almost Asian BBQ flavor. If you have a few extra minutes and fresh garlic, you should absolutely swap in minced garlic cloves for a super garlicky crust.

Chef’s Note: Crispy Chicken Skin

For crispy skin, remove cooked Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken Legs from the casserole dish and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Crank the oven temperature up to high broil and brush chicken with sauce. Return chicken to the oven and bake chicken until the skin is golden and crispy.

Can this be made ahead of time?

Make extra sauce to serve on the side or store uncooked sauce for other recipes. You can store it up to a week before using it on pork, vegetables, or even Pot Roast!

What to Pair With

Keep this a simple dinner by serving Chicken Legs with roasted vegetables and a starchy side. Try Roasted Broccoli or Sautéed Green Beans and drizzle extra sweet garlic sauce over Mashed Potatoes like a gravy. Don’t forget French Bread or homemade Dinner Rolls!

How to Store

  • Serve: Chicken Legs can be at room temperature for up to 2 hours before they should be refrigerated.
  • Store: Place leftovers in an airtight container with any remaining glaze and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
  • Freeze: Cool leftovers completely and freeze in a sealed container for up to 3 months. Cooling food first keeps moisture from collecting and causing “freezer burn.”

Alternative Cooking Techniques

Slow Cooker

  • Whisk all sauce ingredients together in the Crockpot until combined and smooth.
  • Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to the sauce, turning a few times until chicken is coated.
  • Cover slow cooker with lid and cook on low for 5-6 hours, or high 2-3 hours, turning halfway through to coat chicken again.
  • For crispy skin, broil cooked chicken for 3-5 minutes until golden and crunchy. 

Instant Pot

  • In the bottom of the Instant Pot, whisk the vegetable oil, soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, and garlic powder. 
  • Nestle the chicken legs into the sauce and turn a couple of times to coat the chicken.
  • Secure the lid and seal the pressure valve. Set the Instant Pot on Manual High Pressure for 10 minutes.
  • Naturally release pressure for 5 minutes, then quickly release remaining pressure.
  • Transfer chicken to a baking sheet and broil until skin is golden and crispy.

Variations

  • Chicken: You can use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, chicken breast, or chicken wings, or try this on boneless chicken. This sauce makes a great grilling glaze too, so try it with pork chops, steaks, or eggplant this summer!
  • Bacon: Wrap each chicken drumstick in a slice of bacon before you bake them for a next-level good dinner! Bacon is also a good way to trap moisture if you are using boneless, skinless chicken.
  • Honey: Honey is a popular substitute for brown sugar – who doesn’t love Honey Garlic Chicken? You can also swap in molasses (use half the amount), maple syrup, or white sugar, too.
  • Seasonings: Season the chicken with herbs and spices like oregano, onion powder, thyme, or dried basil. Use BBQ Sauce or Teriyaki sauce instead of the ketchup or soy sauce.
  • Spicy: For a spicy, sweet garlic glaze, try a ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, or hot sauce. Increase in tiny amounts until you get the right spicy level for your taste.

More Brown Sugar Garlic Recipes

Baked Chicken Legs Collage pin image

These were in a previous version of this post

Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken Legs sauce and chicken on serving plate with sliced green onions and sesame seeds
Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken Legs sauce and chicken in baking dish with sliced green onions and sesame seeds
Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken Legs Collage of prep steps
Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken Legs sauce and chicken in baking dish with sliced green onions and sesame seeds

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  2. Wow!!! So easy even I can do it. I had 3 leg and thigh pieces. Separated them and followed instructions as written. Came out amazing. My wife thinks I should do all the cooking from now on.

    Reply

    1. LOVED your comment William…made my day. Thanks so much for taking time to write and for the five star review!!

      Reply

  6. I made this for my family. What a hit. I did tweak the recipe a bit. I did not have any vegetable oil. So I substituted sesame seed oil. I lined a 9×13 glass baking dish with foil, shiny side down. Arranged my chicken and baked for 1:15 mins. So delicious. Meat fell right off the bone. Juicy but didn’t get sticky. Definitely a keeper!!

    Reply

  9. Really tasty!! I added a couple squirts of hot sauce to add a bit of heat. My only wish is that the sauce was a little thicker!! We loved the flavours and will definitely make it again!

    Reply