Chicken breasts aren’t all that exciting, but they’re a versatile protein with a pretty healthy image, and for that reason people tend to buy and cook a lot of them. Unfortunately, their lopsided, teardrop shape makes them tricky to cook properly, and you can end up with a piece of meat that’s juicy but flavorless on one side, and dry and charred on the other.

This is part of The Grown Up Kitchen, Skillet's series designed to answer your most basic culinary questions and fill in any gaps you may be missing in your home chef education.

But you don’t have to resign yourself to this fate. All you have to do is show that breast who’s boss with a little pounding. Pounding a chicken breast is pretty simple and has a lot of advantages. A piece of meat that’s an even thickness will cook much more evenly, and a thinner piece of meat will cook much faster. You’re also mechanically tenderizing the meat, which is a bit like a mother bird chewing her baby bird’s food, only a lot less messy. This means you’ll get juicier, tastier chicken on the table faster, which is the best of all possible outcomes. (Plus, flatter chicken makes for better chicken sandwiches, and chicken sandwiches are a big deal.)

To pound a chicken breast, all you have to do is wrap it up and pound it. Many people use plastic wrap to cover their breasts, but I prefer to use a gallon freezer bag.