Txangurro al horno is Basque baked spider crab, the picked white meat stuffed back into the shell with sherry, leeks, tomato and breadcrumbs, then baked until the top crisps to a golden crust.

Txangurro is the Basque word for spider crab (the Cantabrian centollo). The baked preparation (txangurro al horno) was popularised in San Sebastian in the early 20th century at Casa Nicolasa and developed into the canonical Basque seafood plate by the 1960s. The stuffing technique borrows from the French Basque mode of dressing crab in its own shell; the local addition is the brandy or Jerez splash and the breadcrumb top. Ganbara on San Jeronimo runs the canonical pintxo version (small clay dish, baked individually); the full dinner-plate version appears at Casa Urola, Bodegon Alejandro and the Belle Epoque hotel dining rooms.

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