Doctors warn against dangerous ‘Sleepy Chicken’ TikTok trend

Viral recipe ‘Sleepy Chicken’ or ‘NyQuil Chicken’ is making a resurgence on TikTok, but doctors are warning that its effects could potentially be dangerous.

One of the many things TikTok is known for is being a home to thousands of viral recipes, from full meals to sweet treats. Some have even developed huge followings as a result of their simple cooking advice, which has millions flocking to their videos.

However, sometimes a recipe makes its way around the app and causes a stir along the way. ‘NyQuil Chicken’ or ‘Sleepy Chicken,’ which first emerged on social media several years ago, is one such recipe.

True to its name, the dish involves braising chicken in nighttime cold medicine, turning it a less than appealing shade of blue.

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Videos of people making it have garnered hundreds and thousands of views, although users suspect that a number of them are satirical.

But just in case you were tempted to try the trend, doctors have been warning against it, claiming the dish could be dangerous.

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Speaking to MIC, Richmond-based physician Aaron Hartmon said: “Taking medicine with food typically isn’t dangerous, since many people do it with their daily dosage of medicine. When you cook cough medicine like NyQuil, however, you boil off the water and alcohol in it, leaving the chicken saturated with a super concentrated amount of drugs in the meat.”

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“If you ate one of those cutlets completely cooked, it’d be as if you’re actually consuming a quarter to half a bottle of NyQuil.”

He added that heating up the drug can change its chemical composition, and that, “Inhaled, these medicines also enter your bloodstream really quickly and are not going past your liver for detoxification. The effects can be quite bad depending on how much you inhale.”

This certainly won’t be the last bizarre, or even dangerous food trend to sweep the app, and it looks like Sleepy Chicken could continue to rear its head again in the years to come.