煎
jiān · HSK 7
to pan fry
🍳 前 (front, sound jiān) sits over 灬 the four fire dots: food cooked front-and-center over flame
The bottom 灬 is the fire radical (four dots = flames), and the top 前 lends the jiān sound. Heat from below plus a sound clue equals pan-frying.
煎 — fire radical 灬 + 前 (qián, phonetic)
煎 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The bottom 灬 is a form of 火 (fire), giving the meaning of cooking with heat, while 前 supplies the sound (qián → jiān). It originally meant to fry or simmer in a small amount of oil or liquid, a sense it still carries today.