CDC Warning Against NyQuil Marinated Chicken Challenge

Health officials are warning the public about the dangers of a deadly TikTok challenge making the rounds on social media…NyQuil marinated chicken.

“A recent social media video challenge encourages people to cook chicken in NyQuil (acetaminophen, dextromethorphan, and doxylamine) or another similar OTC cough and cold medication, presumably to eat,” says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a press release. “Social media trends and peer pressure can be a dangerous combination to your children and their friends, especially when involving misusing medicines.”

The FDA warns that boiling NyQuil or similar cough/cold medicine can make the solution “much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways.”

Ingesting NyQuil-laced chicken could be deadly, and simply inhaling the vapors could allow a high amount of drugs to enter the body and injure your lungs, health officials say.

“The challenge sounds silly and unappetizing – and it is,” says the FDA. “Put simply: Someone could take a dangerously high amount of the cough and cold medicine without even realizing it.”

Officials are encouraging parents to be extra vigilant as the deadly recipe uses over-the-counter drugs that are easily purchased or readily available at home.

This latest TikTok challenge follows a previous “challenge” that encouraged users to ingest large doses of the allergy medication, Benadryl, or its generic form, diphenhydramine, to produce a hallucinogenic effect.

After reports of teens being rushed to emergency rooms with some dying after the challenge, the FDA also issued a public warning of the trend’s dangerous prevalence.