# Possible to have water bath WITHOUT vacuum bag for chicken breast?
**URL:** https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/possible-to-have-water-bath-without-vacuum-bag-for-chicken-breast/33172
**Category:** Anova Precision® Cooker
**Created:** [July 4, 2024, 3:45am UTC](https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/possible-to-have-water-bath-without-vacuum-bag-for-chicken-breast/33172 "2024-07-04T03:45:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cookingcooker](https://community.anovaculinary.com/u/cookingcooker)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2024, 3:45am UTC](https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/possible-to-have-water-bath-without-vacuum-bag-for-chicken-breast/33172/1 "2024-07-04T03:45:17Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Douglas](https://community.anovaculinary.com/u/Douglas)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2024, 11:31am UTC](https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/possible-to-have-water-bath-without-vacuum-bag-for-chicken-breast/33172/2 "2024-07-04T11:31:22Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@FurrierTransform](https://community.anovaculinary.com/u/FurrierTransform)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2024, 4:58pm UTC](https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/possible-to-have-water-bath-without-vacuum-bag-for-chicken-breast/33172/3 "2024-07-06T16:58:32Z")
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.