I am lazier than most here it seems o.o
I don't bother taking the cover off, I simply feed a string in over the top of the sprocket and fish it out the bottom with a piece of wire. I then tie the string to the first link of the chain, squeeze the clutch handle, and pull on the string.
Zip - chain feeds onto the sprocket every time. Let go the clutch handle and it locks the chain in place, put in the master link and I'm done
If I were really smart - I'd wear gloves as not to get crap all o'er my hands