Selma residents filled their plates with anything but chicken Thursday as the Alabama Wild Life Federation hosted their annual AWF Wild Game Cook-Off at the historic St. James Hotel.

Tommy Tidwell, Alabama Wild Game Cook-Off coordinator said the event is hosted each year “to let people try game from people that enjoy cooking it and enjoy sharing it with other people.”

After tasting all the teams’ dishes, which were broken down in to categories of fish, fowl and game, the judges declared the Chonita Cookers the best overall cooks of the night.

Jasmine Urbe, Amberlie Owens and Mark and Severa McGrady made up the winning team with their game dish of choice—wild turkey tomales.

All cook teams had to provide their own ingredients, including the wild game and whatever ingredients they used to cook with.

And because they won best overall, The Chonita Cookers will go on to compete at the state finals, which will be held at the AWF headquarters.

Tidwell said the competition is always pretty fierce at the cook-off and people often travel to compete.

Other winners were The Bank Trust team, including Lee Calame, Jeb Harrison, Chris Nichols and Charlie Morgan, who won first place in the fish division with fish taco with crawfish.

The Chonita Cookers also won first place in the fowl division.

First place in the game division was awarded to Four Worthless Cooks including Trey Mclntyre, David Hamilton, William Newman and David Rinehart, who served up Running Buck Meatballs.

The Serial Grillers won the title of the Alabama National Guard People’s Choice Award with their quail in hay dish.