There’s a ton of wild stuff that goes down over on TikTok. You see that “period, ah” girl? Not gonna link it. If you don’t know what it is, congratulations. If you do, I’m so sorry. All of the strange challenges and whatnot can take a turn from goofy to dangerous real quick, though.
Some time ago, users were guzzling Benadryl because they thought it’d give them hallucinations. Health experts had to release statements declaring this is not at all healthy. Probably better off just buying some ‘shrooms, kids! This time around, the FDA is advising against marinating chicken with NyQuil and cooking it, which is an actual thing that people appear to be doing for some reason. Guess that’s one less potential flavor to be added to Wingstop’s repertoire. Such a shame.
People have been calling this wonky recipe “sleepy chicken” or “bedtime chicken.” There’s not much evidence that many folks are actually eating it. This is good to know because it doesn't just look like it’s toxic, it also looks absolutely disgusting. Like, Fear Factor-level disgusting. The trend could very well just be some sort of joke and a waste of time and money for everyone involved. Too many people died or were poisoned by Tide Pod consumption when that was a trend, but teenagers were mostly joking. However, even joking about eating cold-medicine chicken is a bad look, no matter if you’re #TeamDrums or #TeamFlats.
According to the FDA, boiling the medication makes it more concentrated and changes its chemical properties: “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.”
Imagine getting sick off NyQuil fumes cause you’re wasting perfectly good chicken trying to do a dumb joke for people on social media. Couldn’t be me.
Chris L. Robinson