Scott Hamilton and Dan Hipkiss scored a try each in the last five minutes of the half to put Tigers ahead at the break.
Alesana Tuilagi was at the heart of both scores, finding Hamilton’s clever run off the right wing for the All Black international to score before taking play to the Saracens 5m and offloading for Hipkiss’s second try in as many games.
Tigers had taken an early lead when Louis Deacon scored his first try of the season. Leicester went through more than a dozen phases, forcing Saracens back onto their line before Deacon crashed over to the right of the posts. Julien Dupuy added the conversion, plus a penalty on 14 minutes, to put Tigers 10-0 ahead.
But Saracens struck back after 19 minutes with Justin Marshall’s drop-goal from an acute angle to put their first points on the board.
And they were level on 22 minutes when full-back Chris Wyles joined the line to pick up Marshall’s miss-pass off his toes and score under the posts.
England international hooker George Chuter was recalled to the front row, while wing Johne Murphy and flanker Ben Herring returned after injuries ruled out Matt Smith and Marco Wentzel. Dan Hipkiss made his 100th appearance for the club, lining up alongside skipper Aaron Mauger at centre. The Tigers replacements included young forwards Calum Green and Dan Hemingway as well as senior internationals Mefin Davies, Derick Hougaard and Tom Varndell.
Saracens, meanwhile, recalled Hugh Vyvyan, David Seymour, Adam Powell and Chris Wyles to their starting line-up. The visitors made a late change to their line-up at inside centre where Ben Jacobs replaced Brad Barritt.
