Slow Roasted Chicken: A Perfect Roast Chicken Every Time!

Published: Sep 8, 2021 · Updated: Mar 21, 2022 · By Lisa Goldfinger · 133 Comments · This post may contain affiliate links

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This Slow Roasted Chicken Recipe makes it easy to cook up a perfect roast chicken every time, with juicy flavorful meat that practically falls off the bone, golden brown skin, and luscious pan juices (to spoon over mashed potatoes!)

With garlic and spices slathered all over the chicken, and the gentle heat of a 300ºF oven for three hours, this chicken gets meltingly tender, soaking up all the incredible flavors of the garlic and spice mixture into every delicious bite!

The Best Way to Roast A Chicken

Every home cook needs a great roast chicken recipe in their repertoire. Roasting a whole chicken is not hard to do, yet if you get it wrong, you can end up with rubbery drumsticks, dried out breast meat and soggy skin - a very sad situation.

There are so many ways to roast a chicken it's almost dizzying. Some recipes focus on super crisp skin, others have a special two-sided cooking technique designed to keep the breasts moist, some include vegetables for a full roasted dinner in one pot.

Out of all the roasted chicken recipes that I've seen and tried, this slow roasted chicken is one of the easiest methods I know, and it's fail proof. You get a perfect roast chicken every time!

Here’s what I love about this slow roasted chicken recipe:

The prep time is only 15-20 minutes
The lemon, garlic, fennel and thyme create amazing flavor
Though the cook time is long - 3 hours - there's no basting or fuss. You just set it and forget it.
As the chicken roasts, the house fills up with a heavenly aroma
Because the oven heat is so low - 300ºF/150ºC - there's no risk that the chicken will dry out or that the garlic and herbs on top will burn. With this method, even the white meat is juicy and tender.

How To Slow Roast A Whole Chicken In The Oven

Here's how to do it: coat the chicken with the garlic and spice mixture, inside and out; stuff the cavity with more garlic, a sliced lemon, and fresh thyme; tie up the legs; and roast the chicken in a 300ºF/150ºC oven for three hours.

Start by Preheating the oven to 300ºF. While it's heating, make the garlic and spice mixture: Whisk the olive oil, garlic, fennel, salt, and red pepper flakes in a small bowl. Spoon it over, under and inside the chicken, and use your hands to spread it evenly over every surface of the chicken, making sure there's plenty on top of the breasts, which will soak up all those delicious flavors. This is the perfect combination of flavors for an incredibly delicious roasted chicken.

Stuff the cavity of the chicken with lightly crushed garlic cloves, the sliced lemon, and the fresh thyme.
Truss the chicken: Tie the chicken's legs together with kitchen twine. This will help the chicken cook evenly (more about trussing below).
Roast the chicken in the oven for three hours. No need to baste it or to even check on it. Just set the timer and when you come back, you'll have a perfect roast chicken!

Wait 15 minutes before carving. When you take the chicken out of the oven, it needs a little time to cool down a bit and redistribute its juices.

How to Slice and Serve A Whole Slow Roasted Chicken

This slow roasted chicken cooks up so tender and easy to slice, I often cut it up right in the roasting pan. Transferring it to a cutting board works well too! Here's my favorite way to slice and serve a roast chicken.

First cut the chicken into eight pieces: two breasts, two thighs, two drumsticks, and two wings. Then cut each breast crosswise into five or six slices. That way everyone can have a thigh or a leg plus a couple of pieces of white meat.
Arrange the chicken pieces on a platter or, even easier, in the same pan you used to roast it. Nestle the pieces into the pan juices, put the lemon slices around (they're delicious by the way), and sprinkle some thyme leaves around, or chopped parsley, for color.
For the perfect roast chicken dinner, serve this chicken with mashed potatoes and a leafy salad with bright citrusy dressing.

Three Tips for making the best whole roasted chicken:

Let the chicken come to room temperature before roasting it. If you put a cold chicken in the oven, it will lower the oven temperature; the chicken won't cook as evenly; and your recipe timing will be off. A half an hour out of the fridge is plenty of time for the chicken to come to room temperature.
Pat the skin dry with paper towels. The drier the better if you want the chicken skin to brown. A wet chicken will create a steamy oven which can result in soggy skin. Some chefs recommend salting the chicken and putting it in the fridge overnight, uncovered to dry it out completely before roasting it. Some even recommend using a hair dryer! Or you can buy an air chilled chicken, which is low-moisture. Personally, I'm very happy with the paper towel method.
Truss the Chicken (tie the legs together). The key here is to tie the ends of the legs together, which helps the chicken cook evenly. When the legs are tight against the breasts, both are less likely to dry out. Also, trussing the chicken closes up the cavity and prevents hot air from circulating in there and drying out the breasts.

Here's the Slow Roasted Chicken Recipe. If you try this, I hope you'll come back to leave a star rating and a comment. I'd love to know what you think!

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