diff --git a/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.cpp b/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.cpp
index 167f8c059b..2fdc00c54d 100644
--- a/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/ota/ota_backend_esp_idf.cpp
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 #include "esphome/core/defines.h"
 #ifdef USE_ESP_IDF
 
+#include <esp_task_wdt.h>
+
 #include "ota_backend_esp_idf.h"
 #include "ota_component.h"
 #include <esp_ota_ops.h>
@@ -14,7 +16,9 @@ OTAResponseTypes IDFOTABackend::begin(size_t image_size) {
   if (this->partition_ == nullptr) {
     return OTA_RESPONSE_ERROR_NO_UPDATE_PARTITION;
   }
+  esp_task_wdt_init(15, false);  // The following function takes longer than the 5 seconds timeout of WDT
   esp_err_t err = esp_ota_begin(this->partition_, image_size, &this->update_handle_);
+  esp_task_wdt_init(CONFIG_ESP_TASK_WDT_TIMEOUT_S, false);  // Set the WDT back to the configured timeout
   if (err != ESP_OK) {
     esp_ota_abort(this->update_handle_);
     this->update_handle_ = 0;