To me (others may say differently) is the temperature and the way it is cooked. Baked chicken is cooked at a lower temperature and usually in a pan that has a lid. Roast chicken is cooked at a higher temperature and in a pan that does not have a lid. We actually have baked turkey at Thanksgiving rather than roast turkey -- cooking it the way my mother and grandmother did. Low and slow in my roaster pan.

As far as meat is concerned, I think the popular use of the two terms is the same, whether that's accurate or not. The temperature doesn't matter.

The way to avoid dry meat, no matter what kind, is to use good quality meat and avoid overcooking it. Times you find listed are only an approximation, it's the internal temperature in the deepest part that matters. For chicken, about 155-160 is the right point for breasts and then let the pieces rest 5-10 minutes. Another approach that can be used for chicken is to brine it though the final target internal temperature is the same. I won't go into the details, the method is easily found.

I buy skin on, bone in air cooled breasts and bake/roast them at about 375 deg. With no more preparation than a light rub of olive oil and a little salt and pepper, the skin comes out brown and crisp by the time the right internal temperature is reached. They're always moist and tasty.

My mother's usual way to cook chicken was to cut it into pieces, coat it with oil, apply a dash of S, P, and paprika, and stick it in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or so. It was our favorite chicken! The skin turned out crispy, the chicken was moist and flavorful. She used a broiler pan so that the chicken didn't sit in a pool of fat.

Broiler pans work. For the easiest cleanup when doing breasts, I line a baking pan with large size HD aluminum foil (large enough to cover entirely front to back, side to side with one piece seamlessly). Then ball up some more foil to make "stands" for the breast pieces to sit on, two balls for each half breast. After cooking, you fold the larger piece inward into a bigger ball and into the trash it all goes, leaving a spotlessly clean broiler pan sitting on your counter, ready to be put away.

I also think the terms have become interchangeable.

But to me baked chicken is something covered and more casserole like. Roast chicken is open roasted with the skin on and exposed.

A few years ago my wife was visiting her father in Florida at Thanksgiving time. She decided to make small, traditional Thanksgiving dinner for the two of them. She bought a turkey breast, looked up a recipe, and called me in a panic saying "The recipe says to 'roast' the turkey breast at X temperature for Y minutes, but his oven only has settings for 'bake' and 'broil'. What do I do?"

At least that was an easy answer, bob. We got a call from a vegetarian that suddenly decided to cook a turkey for her boyfriend and his friends. The night before Thanksgiving, she called and said she had just bought a frozen turkey, and what should she do now to prep it for the next day. Uh....go buy an unfrozen turkey?

Can't say how to differentiate roasted from baked. However, I do want to chime in with my support of putting the chicken on a broiler pan for baking/roasting. I have a favorite spice mix that I rub under and on top of the skin and place the chicken pieces (usually thighs) on the broiler. I also put some water in the bottom of the broiler pan, which makes it easier to clean. The chicken always comes out moist and flavorful, with crisp skin on top of the thighs.

Roasting is to cook with dry heat - no liquids (other than some basting fluid and the meat juices) - and usually involves a larger cut of meat or the whole bird, if poultry. Baking generally involves a liquid of some kind, often includes other ingredients as well and is done with smaller pieces. It also sometimes involves some precooking like searing, browning or braising before the baking process.