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My kids really like chicken legs.  They are easy and fun to eat, like meat on a stick.  I picked up these organic free range chicken legs for $3, so it was pretty easy on the budget too. There were five in the package, which meant we each ate one.  One leg isn’t a whole lot of meat for an adult, so make sure you have lots of yummy sides to serve with these legs.  For us though, one leg a piece was plenty.  A small portion of meat is one way that I keep the budget in check to keep real food affordable.

This is hardly a recipe, but I’m going to post it anyway to show you that real food does not have to be complicated in the least.  Often simple food is the best food.  Learning basic techniques like this will keep healthy eating sustainable in your own home.  Once you get down the basics, you can switch up the seasonings how you wish.

If you wanted to make this a complete one dish meal, these chicken legs would be perfect to put some chopped up vegetables in the same dish to roast along with the chicken.  Some delicious options would be squash, zucchini, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, and onions.

On to the “recipe” if you want to call it that.

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Simple baked herb chicken legs
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Simple herb baked chicken legs

Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 42 minutes

Ingredients

  • chicken legs best quality you can afford
  • olive oil
  • sea salt
  • pepper
  • dried spices/herbs of choice I use garlic powder, thyme, and oregano

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Pat dry chicken legs and place them in a baking dish.  For easy clean up, place a layer of parchment paper in the bottom.
  3. Drizzle olive oil over the legs.
  4. Liberally season with salt, some pepper and spices/herbs of choice.
  5. Bake in oven for 20 minutes.
  6. Flip to the other side, season the second side, and bake for another 20 minutes.
  7. Flip over to the original side and broil for another minute, until skin is crisp and browned, and meat is starting to pull away from the bone.  The internal temperature should be 165 degrees.

Bonus tip:  Save the juice and fat to make gravy for a later meal.  Put the bones in the freezer to save for when you have enough to make stock.  Get in the habit of being a “no-waste” kitchen.