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The Food and Drug Administration has issued an update advising consumers that cooking chicken in NyQuil is dangerous.
The warning, part of a broader FDA update published Thursday about "social media challenges," refers to a video posted at least a year ago in which a TikTok user fries two chicken breasts in the cold and flu medicine. In the video, which went viral but appears to have been taken down, the user flips the meat with a flatiron hair straightener.
"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," the FDA said.
The TikTok video does not use the word "challenge," and it is unclear whether many people ever tried to cook chicken in NyQuil.
The FDA statement caused NyQuil to trend on Twitter on Tuesday.
The FDA said that even if people do not eat the chicken, cooking it in the over-the-counter medicine could cause them to inhale high levels of the drug's vapors.