Got my Anova Nano yesterday and tested it in a water bath at 63°C for 1.5H, with 130g chicken breast NOT in a bag. The result was seriously TOUGH chicken, much worse than my steam oven at similar settings.
My question is - is it possible to get the same soft texture of chicken breast without the vacuum bag? I’m wary of the microplastics that can leak out to the food.
Welcome @cookingcooker
Your cook time and temperature are reasonable, so that’s not likely the cause of toughness. Without a bag I would have expected soggy flavorless chicken.
I recommend you read and understand Douglas Baldwin’s seminal A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking that is FREE and ON-LINE, and very well referenced, perhaps with academic consideration of micro plastics and leaching.
You are hypersensitive to “micro plastics … leak[ing] out to the food.” Of what was your tub made, plastic? Micro plastics are not the usual concern but plastic additives are often overblown concern.
I guess if you poached it in some flavored liquid (e.g. butter poaching) it would have turned out well. But now you have to disassemble your nano to clean it.