Baked Turkey Legs in Foil

Fall off the bone oven baked turkey legs in foil at 300 turn out great! With moist tender meat inside and crispy turkey skin outside we love them brined or with our turkey dry rub.

Baked Turkey Legs Wrapped in Foil

If you have only cooked that big bird whole you’re in for a real treat. Did you even know that cutting up a raw turkey into separate pieces and cooking them one by one is way faster and you can really add a lot more seasonings to coat the outside.

Why would you do such a thing?? Well I love that I can make sheet pan turkey with it in just one hour instead of all day long. Also you can choose to cook them in different ways. For lunch you could make these as we will show you below. Maybe for dinner you want to switch things around and make turkey thighs in air fryer this way.

Each way has it’s uniqueness to it right?? For SUPER moist insides I suggest using the oven but for REALLY crispy skin, I would air fry. Each person will likely have a preference. We use this same method for how to cook a Butterball turkey breasts and baked turkey wings too.

The cover, then remove at the end to get that golden crisp skin works great for just the right texture if you ask me. All you need is your meat, foil and a baking sheet or casserole dish that is large enough. You don’t want anything overlapping so adjust the size according to how many you have.

How to Cook Fall off the Bone Turkey Legs

Almost all parts of a turkey need to slow roast for a bit, and then the outside needs to be crisped if you ask me. Yes it is wonderful in an air fryer or pressure cooked too but there’s something about the “old fashioned” method in the oven right?? You will want to cover the top tightly with foil to trap the heat and need about 2 hours at this low temp to get the meat to pull away from the bone and perfectly moist.

Ok so this is what you’re going to need to get started. If you took apart the whole bird yourself you would only have 2 of them but many times you can find them by themselves at the store in the meat section so you may have more on hand. As long as they don’t overlap you can fit as many as you have on the sheet.

Ingredients

• Buy turkey legs that are all the same size so they bake evenly
• A bit of olive oil, or melted butter works too
• Best if you use one of the following
  • Ideally use our simple brine recipe soaking turkey drumsticks for 6 hours or overnight
  • OR whip up the turkey dry rub linked in the recipe card below
    • For super simple feel free to just sprinkle on seasonings of choice when you lift off the foil
• Baking sheet, roasting pan or large casserole dish
• Meat thermometer

Loosely cover top with foil on the pan and non stick aluminum foil for sure on the top so it doesn’t stick to your skin and peel that off.

How Long to Bake Turkey Legs at 300

Remember that they all are different sizes so the cook time will vary ever so slightly. 2 hours is typically perfect though so I say 1 hour 45 minutes to 120 minutes you should set aside. You always want it to rest for about 10 minutes at the end too so figure a good 2 hours with all of that taken into account.

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line a baking sheet or casserole dish with non stick aluminum foil.
• Set legs on top.
• Drizzle 1/2 of your olive oil on top of all of them, evenly distributed.
• Cover top with non stick aluminum foil.
• Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours or until thickest part temp = 165 F.
• Then uncover the top and drizzle the remaining olive oil over the top of each one so the skin is nicely coated.
  • If you haven’t seasoned at yet you should sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
• There will be a decent amount of drippings on the pan when done so you could make gravy out of that with a little cornstarch thickener too.

Switch oven to broil for another 3-4 minutes or until skin is as browned as you’d like. We do the same with air fryer turkey necks too. Remove, cover with foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes and then serve. If you’re a dark meat lover you might fall so in love with this roasted turkey leg recipe that you’ll never buy it whole ever again. 😉

Can you bake turkey legs and thighs together?

Now if you want to know how to cook turkey legs and thighs that are still attached (leg quarters) will take a bit longer. Just keep your thermometer handy but follow the same steps shared here to get those done too. I hope we have answered all of the questions you may have had along the way here. There is a printable recipe card down below you can keep handy or just come back year after year.

I will say that 30 minutes before you take the top off you should start your sides. Increase the temp to 350 degrees to make our cream corn casserole recipe or mash some taters.

What is the best way to reheat a turkey leg?

First off you can make the best leftover turkey recipe here without heating it first. You just remove the meat off the bone, dice it up and make our turnovers. If you do want to just keep as is and heat again to enjoy the next day I would recommend the microwave. To add moisture I would drizzle 1 tbsp of broth over the top first and heat for a minute.

You can also follow directions on reheating chicken in the air fryer which is identical to this meat really. You just want to add a bit of olive oil and watch closely because the outsides can get pretty brown. I usually just take the protein off and throw it into a casserole to really get it moist and tender again, your best bet.