Doctors raise alert over dangerous 'sleepy chicken' TikTok 'health' trend

The new fad has taken over TikTok. Photo / TikTok

Doctors have issued a warning regarding a new TikTok trend that sees people cooking chicken using cold and flu medicine.

Medical experts have asked TikTok users to steer clear of the latest trendy fad, called "sleepy chicken", which involves cooking chicken braised in a cold and flu medicine such as Nyquil or Benadryl.

Numerous TikTok videos show people making the dish, with some of them seemingly pouring half a bottle of cough medicine on the raw chicken meat before braising it.

Doctors warn you should not cook chicken, or anything, with cold and flu remedies.

"It tends to bring out the worst in some cases, hence the Darwinian approach of anti-vaxxers who obtain their medical 'research' from such sources as Facebook and Instagram," Dr Jeff Foster told The Sun.

He added that the fad 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 Aaron Hartman, physician and assistant clinical professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, has also spoken out against the trend.

"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," he explained.

"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.

In some of the videos circulating on TikTok, people appear to boil the chicken with the flu remedy for only five minutes, then saying it's "ready to eat".

According to Dr Hartman, the fad is also a recipe for food poisoning.

He also said that another big risk is the fact that you are breathing the medicine in, as well as eating it.

"We have doses on medicines for a reason. If you soak a food in it, and then cook it, you are very likely to overdose or at least have no idea what dose you are getting," Hartman added.

"By taking more than you should, you run the real risk of acute liver poisoning, as well as dizziness, vomiting, seizures and death.

"By cooking the food you remove the water and any other liquid in there that gives an idea of dose so you just get a super-concentrated dose."

Hartman compared it to "taking a whole box of paracetamol in one go".

"The safety risk is just so unbelievably high."