How thoroughly do you need to clean the inside of a chicken before baking it? My wife's family breaks apart the inside and cleans out what is in between the bones. My family just rinses the inside and then bakes it. Do you need to be super thorough when cleaning a chicken or is the baking process going to kill all the bacteria?
Providing you don't leave anything unpleasant inside the cavity a good rinse under the tap is good enough. As you surmised, the process of cooking the chicken will kill all the bacteria. Just make sure it's cooked correctly :)