Baked turkey legs in the oven is a great way to cook up some dark meat for the holidays. In Sip Bite Go’s baked turkey leg recipe, you’ll have a super moist turkey leg with a crispy skin to devour! Grab your dark meat lovers and let’s get baking!
Make them for game day, or as an extra entree for a holiday meal…
These are a great copycat version of Disney World turkey legs made in the oven.
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Why Baked Turkey Legs are so yummy to cook…
- Little prep time involved! In less than 30 minutes you’ll be good to start the oven baking the legs.
- Season as you’d like! Feel free to use whatever type of seasoning that you want for this roasted turkey legs recipe. Could use a BBQ rub, keep it simple with salt and pepper and garlic powder or marinated in a delicious sauce if you so desire.
- Results are so TASTY – In this Sip Bite Go recipe, your turkey legs will be juicy inside… and the turkey skin will be nice and crisp.
New to cooking baked turkey legs in the oven? I got you!
See my step by step video for beginners (scroll to bottom of page).
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make Baked Turkey Legs.
- turkey legs, about 1 LB each
- butter, salted, melted
- bbq rub (any BBQ seasoning or poultry rub – see this review for Traeger pork and poultry rub)
To get extra crispy skin on baked turkey legs
- butter, salted, melted
How to make Baked Turkey Legs
Now I’ll walk you through it…
Quick look at Baked Turkey Legs recipe
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and prepare the turkey legs with seasoning.
- Cook turkey legs in the oven at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes in a pan covered with foil.
- Remove foil and increase oven temp to 425 degrees F to finish baking for 20 minutes until done.
- Remove baked turkey legs at 165 degrees F internal temperature, rest for 10 minutes and enjoy!
See how to make a turkey gravy packet taste even better…
Detailed recipe steps
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Set aside a parchment paper lined, rimmed baking sheet.
- Prep turkey legs for baking. Pat turkey legs dry with paper towels.
- Season the turkey leg meat by brushing them all over with butter or olive oil. Cover with BBQ rub or your favorite poultry seasoning blend. Massage seasonings into the skin.
- Transfer turkey legs to the baking sheet. Cover the baking sheet with foil.
- Bake turkey legs in oven at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes.
- Remove turkey legs from oven (leave oven on and increase temperature to 425 degrees F). For reference, the turkey legs won’t be done at this time, but in the Sip Bite Go recipe video demonstration, the internal temp measured about 120 degrees F.
- Brush turkey legs with additional melted butter, leaving seasoning intact.
- Return meat to oven and continue baking turkey legs until done, which is when they measure 165 degrees F with an internal read meat thermometer. In the Sip Bite Go demonstration, they were done in 20 minutes. (~40 minutes total)
- Rest 5-10 minutes, let cool and enjoy.
Get the best recipe for smoking a turkey on a pellet grill…
Checkout these sides for turkey legs…
- Smoked Mac & Cheese
- Smoked Acorn Squash
- Air Fryer Beets
- Smoked Butternut Squash
- Smoked Asparagus
- Carrots with Garlic Butter
- Smoked Mashed Potatoes
FAQs
It should take ~40 minutes, depending on the size of your turkey legs. Ultimately cook the turkey legs to an internal temp of 165 degrees F measured in the thickest part of the leg.
In this Sip Bite Go recipe, I used two temperatures, 375 degrees F and 425 degrees F.
Initially baked at 375 degrees F covered with foil to keep a steam like environment for the turkey legs. This method helps keep the turkey moist. Then raise the oven temp to 425 degrees F uncovered to crisp up the turkey skin without drying it out.
If you have other food that cooks at 350 degrees F, you could preheat the oven to 350 degrees F for the initial cook. The cooking process will be a little slower though. You should still increase the oven temp to 425 degrees F to crisp up the skin though. There’s no way around that!
You can usually purchase turkey legs at your local grocery store. Keep in mind time of year though. Some grocery stores don’t carry fresh turkey legs year round.
You can store cooked turkey legs in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 – 4 days.
Alternatively you can freeze cooked turkey legs in the freezer for 2 – 3 months. Just thaw in your fridge first before reheating in the oven.
You can serve a ton of smoked sides with turkey legs. Mac and cheese, mashed potatoes or any of these potato side dishes… they’re all great choices.
Turkey legs are done when they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F measured with an internal read thermometer.
There’s a couple of things you can do to keep turkey legs from drying out.
First is to coat them with butter prior to cooking. Second is to use my foil cover method. After many tests, I found this method to be the best.
Start by baking turkey legs covered with foil at a lower temperature of 375 or even 350 degrees F. Once the turkey legs get to 120 degrees F internally, crank the oven temp up to 425 degrees F to crisp up the skin fast, so it doesn’t dry out.
You can reheat turkey legs in a roasting pan by placing them in a 350 degree F oven flipping every ten minutes until heated throughout.
Yes, you can freeze turkey legs. Once the turkey legs are cooked, store them in an airtight container or resealable bag in the freezer for 2 – 3 months.
New recipes and foodie guides….
- Tri tip (it’s so good!)
- Homemade pizza
- Smoked wings
- Traeger pizza
- Pan grilled chicken
- Bacon wrapped hot dogs
- Potato side dishes
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Grill and smoker recipes…
- Grilled chicken wings
- Smoked pizza
- Smoked chicken
- Smoked tri tip
- Traeger pulled pork
- Smoked turkey breast
- Smoked chicken wings
- Smoked ham
- Flank steak marinade
- Skirt steak marinade
- Smoked mac and cheese
- Smoked chicken breast
- Grilled broccoli
Meat thermometer recommendations
Every home chef needs a reliable meat thermometer to cook food perfectly.
On Sip Bite Go, you’ll often see me using:
- Meater thermometer – a fancy wireless thermometer that connects to a phone app – gifted to me from a Traeger partnership.
- ThermoPro digital thermometer – which has a wire that connects the thermometer to a display box outside the oven/grill.
It’s like being psychic! The great thing about either of the thermometers above is that I don’t have to take the food out of the oven to know the temperature.
How to use ‘em… What I do is stick the digital thermometer in steak, pork, chicken, whatever… Then put the food in the oven, on the smoker, or grill.
While the meat cooks, it reads the temperature so I know exactly what temp meat is as it’s cooking. Without having to take it out and check. It’s really difficult to overcook food when you know exactly what temp it is inside!
Are you a foodie, too?
Hey home chefs, hope that answers all your questions about cooking these baked turkey legs in the oven.
Connect…
- Instagram / TikTok / YouTube
- Browse the Sip Bite Go recipe collection
Baked Turkey Legs In Oven Recipe | Sip Bite Go
Ingredients
- 2 turkey legs about 1 LB each
- 2 tbsp butter salted, melted
- 1 tbsp bbq rub any BBQ seasoning or poultry rub
To crisp skin on turkey legs towards the end of baking
- 2 tbsp butter salted, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Set aside a parchment paper lined, rimmed baking sheet.
- Prep turkey legs for baking. Pat turkey legs dry with paper towels.
- Season the turkey leg meat by brushing them all over with butter or olive oil. Cover with BBQ rub or your favorite poultry seasoning blend. Massage seasonings into the skin.
- Transfer turkey legs to the baking sheet. Cover the baking sheet with foil.
- Bake turkey legs in oven at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes.
- Remove turkey legs from oven (leave oven on and increase temperature to 425 degrees F). For reference, the turkey legs won’t be done at this time, but in the Sip Bite Go recipe video demonstration, the internal temp measured about 120 degrees F.
- Brush turkey legs with additional melted butter, leaving seasoning intact.
- Return meat to oven and continue baking turkey legs until done, which is when they measure 165 degrees F with an internal read meat thermometer. In the Sip Bite Go demonstration, they were done in 20 minutes. (~40 minutes total)
- Rest 5-10 minutes, let cool and enjoy.
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