diff --git a/.changeset/tiny-buses-compete.md b/.changeset/tiny-buses-compete.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2cb8d1a87f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/tiny-buses-compete.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+'@backstage/core-components': patch
+'@backstage/plugin-scaffolder': patch
+---
+
+Make linkTarget configurable for MarkdownContent component
diff --git a/packages/core-components/api-report.md b/packages/core-components/api-report.md
index d8aef17007..6046113dd2 100644
--- a/packages/core-components/api-report.md
+++ b/packages/core-components/api-report.md
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import { LinkProps as LinkProps_3 } from 'react-router-dom';
 import MaterialBreadcrumbs from '@material-ui/core/Breadcrumbs';
 import { MaterialTableProps } from '@material-table/core';
 import { NavLinkProps } from 'react-router-dom';
+import { Options } from 'react-markdown';
 import { Overrides } from '@material-ui/core/styles/overrides';
 import { ProfileInfo } from '@backstage/core-plugin-api';
 import { ProfileInfoApi } from '@backstage/core-plugin-api';
diff --git a/packages/core-components/src/components/MarkdownContent/MarkdownContent.tsx b/packages/core-components/src/components/MarkdownContent/MarkdownContent.tsx
index 6728c48580..df4ad56776 100644
--- a/packages/core-components/src/components/MarkdownContent/MarkdownContent.tsx
+++ b/packages/core-components/src/components/MarkdownContent/MarkdownContent.tsx
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ const useStyles = makeStyles<BackstageTheme>(
 type Props = {
   content: string;
   dialect?: 'gfm' | 'common-mark';
+  linkTarget?: Options['linkTarget'];
 };
 
 const components: Options['components'] = {
@@ -90,7 +91,7 @@ const components: Options['components'] = {
  * If you just want to render to plain [CommonMark](https://commonmark.org/), set the dialect to `'common-mark'`
  */
 export function MarkdownContent(props: Props) {
-  const { content, dialect = 'gfm' } = props;
+  const { content, dialect = 'gfm', linkTarget } = props;
   const classes = useStyles();
   return (
     <ReactMarkdown
@@ -98,6 +99,7 @@ export function MarkdownContent(props: Props) {
       className={classes.markdown}
       children={content}
       components={components}
+      linkTarget={linkTarget}
     />
   );
 }
diff --git a/plugins/scaffolder/src/components/MultistepJsonForm/FieldOverrides/DescriptionField.tsx b/plugins/scaffolder/src/components/MultistepJsonForm/FieldOverrides/DescriptionField.tsx
index 6d116cc52b..3c592860ef 100644
--- a/plugins/scaffolder/src/components/MultistepJsonForm/FieldOverrides/DescriptionField.tsx
+++ b/plugins/scaffolder/src/components/MultistepJsonForm/FieldOverrides/DescriptionField.tsx
@@ -19,4 +19,4 @@ import { MarkdownContent } from '@backstage/core-components';
 import { FieldProps } from '@rjsf/core';
 
 export const DescriptionField = ({ description }: FieldProps) =>
-  description && <MarkdownContent content={description} />;
+  description && <MarkdownContent content={description} linkTarget="_blank" />;