1. Clean the chicken, stuff it with the herbs and garlic. Make a 1 inch layer of coarse grained salt on the bottom a terracotta casserole (I use my Creuset) place chicken on salt. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. pour remaining salt over chicken.
Cover casserole dish with its lid and place in the oven. bake for 10 minutes, then raise temperature to 400 and bake for 1-1/2 hours longer. remove casserole from oven and let rest for two minutes
3. A solid crust should have formed. Crack the crust with a wooden meat pounder or a heavy wooden spoon (Philippe uses a hammer. really)
4. Transfer to a serving dish. The chicken should be golden brown and very juicy. Brush off any loose salt and serve immediately.
some changes I've made-- I tend to really stuff the chicken-- three or four galic cloves, and lots of parsley, thyme and rosemary. you get some wonderful flavor. Also, be sure to remove the skin after you remove the salt-- it is too salty to eat, even if the chicken is fine.