TikTok’s Sleepy Chicken, aka NyQuil chicken trend sees users creating their very own dish, braised in a cold and flu remedy claiming it’s a remedy for the ongoing cold and flu.

Users refer to the recipe as NyQuil chicken or sleepy chicken and the UK equivalent of Nyquil would be a product like Night Nurse.

Doctors have warned that you should not be braising your chicken or anything, for that matter in a cold and flu remedy product.

Several videos on TikTok show people making the dish, with some using close to half a bottle of the medicine for their meat. While most people usually take medicines or food with supplements, this trend sees the food being soaked in the solution.

The idea that by saturating any food product in a medicine believing that it will provide some novel health benefit or cure is not just stupid, but incredibly dangerous. The case of Nyquil chicken is no different.  The idea that by saturating any food product in a medicine believing that it will provide some novel health benefit or cure is not just stupid, but incredibly dangerous.

Dr. Jeff Foster

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

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. 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.

Dr. Aaron Hartman – Virginia Commonwealth University

The medical practitioner also highlighted that this could cause food poisoning, which will lead to sickness and diarrhea. However, there are much bigger risks involved.