What Is 'Sleepy Chicken'? Doctors Warn Against Dangerous TikTok Trend Using NyQuil

A new TikTok trend has become a talking point on social media leaving doctors concerned about the danger it poses to people's health. The so-called "sleepy chicken" or "NyQuil chicken" is making users braise their chicken in a cold and flu remedy product.

In a video, a TikTok user is seen removing some thinly sliced chicken breasts from a package. The user then puts them in a pot, douses them with a full bottle of NyQuil and cooks them up. A second video shows the meat being stirred in the blue concoction, according to WBZ News Radio.

NyQuil is a combination medicine used to treat headache, fever, body aches, cough, runny nose, sneezing and sore throat caused by allergies, the common cold, or the flu, according to Drugs.com

Doctors warned that people should not be braising chicken – or anything for that matter in a cold and flu remedy product. After the "NyQuil chicken" recipe went viral, several videos were reportedly shared on TikTok, showing people using a full or half a bottle of the medicine for their meat. This trend sees the food being soaked in the solution before being consumed.

Dr. Aaron Hartman, a physician and assistant clinical professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, explained why the trend is dangerous.

“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 told MIC.com.

Some of the videos reportedly showed people boiling raw chicken in the medicine for just five minutes before serving it as a ready-to-eat meal. Dr. Hartman explained that this could lead to food poisoning. He also said people preparing the chicken also end up breathing the medicine in which is not good for their health.

“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”, he said. “When you cook cough medicine like NyQuil, you boil off the water and alcohol in it, leaving the chicken saturated with a super concentrated amount of drugs in the meat."

Medicines like NyQuil contain ingredients that induce sleep while alleviating cold symptoms. The medicine contains acetaminophen as well as antihistamines and decongestants. It also contains dextromethorphan, which is a cough suppressant that can affect parts of the brain, helping reduce the urge to cough.

Dextromethorphan has previously been used by recreational drug users. The excessive use of this cough suppressant can cause both physical and psychological effects and, in extreme cases, can result in liver failure, according to WebMD.