Published January 1, 1996.
We wanted a slow-roasted chicken recipe that would give us juicy and tender white meat and dark meat fully cooked, all the way to the bone. Continuous basting and trussing both proved unnecessary for this ideal chicken recipe. We found that roasting the bird for 30 minutes in a 375-degree oven, followed by an hour at 200 degrees and finally 15 minutes at 400 degrees, yielded perfectly cooked white and dark meat as well as golden, crunchy skin.
Larger chickens will obviously require longer roasting time. I suggest adding five minutes of cooking time at 375 degrees for every additional quarter pound of weight over three and one-half pounds (a four-pound bird, for example, would roast for a total of forty minutes at 375 degrees). If the bird is still not cooked after fifteen minutes at 400 degrees, keep the bird in the oven until the thigh meat comes up to temperature. Do not stuff or truss a slow-roasted chicken.
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