Amongst the list of stupid things that the internet has told us to eat (hello, Tide Pods!), NyQuil Chicken must surely be near the top. After all, how could marinating poultry in cold medicine give it any taste?!
Also known as Sleepytime Chicken, the “recipe”, which went viral on TikTok, involves soaking poultry in the medicated syrup of paracetamol, dextromethorphan, and doxylamine, and then cooking it. Although it is impossible to think that anyone would make something so ridiculous, it seems there were enough incidents for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a warning.
“A recent social media video challenge encourages people to cook chicken in NyQuil,” reads the statement. “The challenge sounds silly and unappetizing—and it is. But it could also be very unsafe. Boiling a medication can make it much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways. 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.”
Although TikTok searches for NyQuil Chicken soared to over 7,000 following the FDA’s warning, we can think of many marinades that would taste a lot nicer.
