GLADSTONE nurse Cassie Strohmeyer is once again queen of the barbecue after defending her title at the recent Emerald BBQ and Beer Fest.

Cassie was the only solo female competitor at the event, representing her team Smoke on the Water after competing at the festival last year.

She was named Grand Champion out of the 11 competing teams after claiming first place in the pork ribs, chicken, brisket and lamb categories while picking up second place in the mystery meat category.

The mystery meat was an ancillary category that didn't count towards the Grand Champion at the August 17 event.

The mystery meat - crocodile tail - was only revealed on the eve of the competition. Cassie said she had to improvise as she and her fellow competitors had never cooked with crocodile before.

"We were told there would be a mystery meat and even the promoter didn't know what it was," Cassie said.

"They told us at the team briefing at 5pm (on Friday) and we collected our tray of meat wondering what the hell to do with it."

Cassie drew recipe inspiration from her experience at a previous barbecue competition at Burleigh Heads.

"There was a category for seafood with 32 teams and I came 12th overall and used salmon," she said.

"I used similar toppings on that and it was a parmesan crust I used. So I did a parmesan lime zest garlic crust on the top of the crocodile and it actually worked out really well. Crocodile tail looks like fish but tastes like tough chicken."

Cassie said the win (with Shane Hinton on dishes) had vindicated that she's "a chick that can barbecue and nobody can tell me any different".