Smashing Chicken

I had a moment of perfect clarity the other night: I'm a dork. AKA, "this is so freaking obvious, how did I not figure it out WAY before now??"

So, you know how chicken is all germy in a general sort of way, and we've all (hopefully) gotten the message about don't rinse chicken before cooking it because it splashes micro drops of that bacteria EVERYFREAKINGWHERE. Right? Right. But what about when you need to smash it so it is an even thickness? If you pay close attention, even if you've patted it dry with a paper towel, there's still droplets going everywhere when you bust out ye olde meat tenderizer, aka, Momma's big ole stress reducing hammer.

Allow me to just drop this here...

Yep. Just smash it while the bag is sealed. 

Took me years to figure that one out. Durr de durr dur durrr....