煎 (jiān) · to pan-fry, to fry in a small amount of oil

Meanings

1 to pan-fry
2 to fry in a small amount of oil
3 to simmer; to decoct

Characters

煎

jiān

to pan-fry; to decoct

Examples

HSK 1

妈妈在煎鸡蛋。

Māma zài jiān jīdàn.

Mom is frying eggs.

HSK 7-9

这条鱼要煎到两面金黄。

Zhè tiáo yú yào jiān dào liǎngmiàn jīnhuáng.

This fish needs to be pan-fried until both sides are golden.

Tips

usage

煎 means to cook with a small amount of oil in a flat pan (pan-fry). Compare: 炒 (chǎo, stir-fry), 炸 (zhá, deep-fry), 烤 (kǎo, roast/bake). 煎药 (jiānyào) means to decoct herbal medicine.

Components

radical

灬 huǒ

fire (radical form, four-dot bottom)

Bottom four-dot fire radical - Kangxi #86 in its bottom-of-character form, a contracted 火. The four dots are stylized flames licking up at whatever sits above. The indexing radical here. Anchors 煎 in the cooking-with-heat family alongside 煮 (boil), 炒 (stir-fry), 蒸 (steam - different radical), 烫 (scald). The image of a pan over flames captures the stir-fry/pan-fry meaning exactly.

phonetic

前 qián

front; before

Top 前 - supplies the sound (qián → jiān, a regular palatal-front-vowel drift) and is treated as a single unit here even though it is itself decomposable. 前 contributes no transparent meaning; this is a clean phono-semantic compound where the top is purely the sound-bearer. Same 前-phonetic pattern in 箭 (arrow), 剪 (scissors).