FDA warns about social media challenge involving cooking chicken in NyQuil

Calling it a “recipe for danger” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning people not to be enticed by a new social media challenge on TikTok that involves cooking chicken in NyQuil cold medication.

“The challenge sounds silly and unappetizing — and it is,” the FDA said on its website. “But it could also be very unsafe.”

The FDA warns that boiling medicine can change its properties in dangerous ways, making it more concentrated.

“Even if you don’t eat the chicken, inhaling the medication’s vapors while cooking could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body. It could also hurt your lungs. Put simply: Someone could take a dangerously high amount of the cough and cold medicine without even realizing it.”

NyQuil contains ingredients like acetaminophen, dextromethorphan, and doxylamine — all of which can be damaging in higher than suggested doses.

The so-called “sleepy chicken” challenge isn’t the first of its kind to alarm authorities and parents.

Back in 2020, the FDA also issued a warning about the “Benadryl Challenge” that circulated on TikTok and involved taking high doses of the over-the-counter (OTC) allergy medicine to get high and induce hallucinations.

The FDA said there were “reports of teenagers ending up in emergency rooms or dying after participating in the ‘Benadryl Challenge’ encouraged in videos posted on the social media application TikTok.”

The FDA noted that high doses of diphenhydramine — the active ingredient in Benadryl — can “lead to serious heart problems, seizures, coma, or even death.”

And who can forget the notoriously dangerous and stupid Tide Pod challenge — another social media-fueled trend that urged teens to eat the laundry detergent packets.