Roast Chicken - A method against the trend

Hello Hounds,

Staying with old friends over the weekend, and on Sunday, my hostess - who is a great cook - asked would I mind if she did something simple for dinner, a roast chicken.

Since it's possibly my fav dish, I agreed heartily, and she immediately got to work and switched on the oven. It was only mid-afternoon, and I asked what time she planned to have dinner at.

'Oh the chicken will be done about 7.00, so we'll eat shortly after that'. That meant a three-hour cooking time!

I asked her what temperature she was cooking the chicken at and she told me 300F, which I scarcely believed. 'Well, I don't like it all dried out, and I like it really falling off the bone, so I like to cook it slowly'.

Of course we debated the pros and cons of high versus low temperature. I was intrigued by the idea of a slow roasted chicken, how it would taste, and whether it really wouldn't be dried out.

Here's what she did:

4lb chicken
sprinkled liberally with sea salt, and herbes de provence
No trussing, and nothing in the cavity
Covered generously with thick-cut canadian bacon on the breast

Before putting it in the oven, she put a foil tent over the breast, which she removed about half an hour before taking the chicken out.

The result was one of the most delicious, moist, and tender roast chickens I have ever eaten. It made me think a lot about the 450F oven I use for mine (which is really closer to a true 430F).

Wonder if any other Hounds use a slow roasting method?

- Sean