Meaning & use
pan-fried
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Cooked in a shallow layer of hot oil in a flat pan on top of a stove.
Grammar: Sits before the noun it describes: a pan-fried egg. After be it usually keeps the hyphen in writing: the fish was pan-fried.
Patterns
- pan-fried something
- a pan-fried dish
She served pan-fried potatoes with the chicken.
The menu lists pan-fried trout with lemon butter.
For a quick lunch I made a pan-fried egg sandwich.
verbtransitive or intransitive
Cooked food in a shallow layer of oil in a flat pan over direct heat.
Grammar: This is the past tense and past participle of 'pan-fry', used in passive sentences: the dumplings were pan-fried. The base form is 'pan-fry'.
Patterns
- pan-fry something
- something is pan-fried
- pan-fry for a few minutes
He pan-fried the fish for three minutes on each side.
The chef pan-fried the vegetables until the edges turned brown.
These dumplings are best pan-fried rather than steamed.
Word forms
| base form | pan-fry |
|---|---|
| third person singular | pan-fries |
| past tense | pan-fried |
| past participle | pan-fried |
| -ing form | pan-frying |
Common combinations
- pan-fried chicken
- Pan-fried chicken with garlic and herbs is a simple weeknight dinner.
- pan-fried fish
- The restaurant is known for its pan-fried fish.
- pan-fried until golden
- Cook the slices, pan-fried until golden on both sides.
- lightly pan-fried
- The nuts are lightly pan-fried to bring out the flavor.
- pan-fried in butter
- The mushrooms were pan-fried in butter and thyme.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sautéed
- Very close in meaning, but 'sautéed' suggests tossing food quickly in a little fat over high heat, often in a thinner pan.
- shallow-fried
- A more technical term for the same idea; it stresses that the oil is deep enough to reach partway up the food.
- griddled
- Similar, but the food cooks on a heavy flat surface rather than in oil in a pan.
Opposites
Word family
- pan-fry verb
- To cook something this way; the base form of 'pan-fried'.
- fry verb
- To cook in hot oil, whether in a shallow or deep layer.
- frying pan noun
- The flat pan used for this kind of cooking.
Commonly confused: pan-fried or deep-fried? pan-fried or stir-fried?
pan-fried vs deep-fried
Deep-fried food is fully covered by hot oil, while pan-fried food sits in only a shallow layer, so it usually browns more slowly and soaks up less oil.
pan-fried vs stir-fried
Stir-fried food is moved constantly over very high heat in a wok with very little oil; pan-fried food is usually left to sit and brown.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'pan-fried' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Pan-fried' describes cooking food in a shallow layer of oil in a pan, so salmon is a natural choice. Option 1 fails because soup is liquid and is not cooked this way, while options 3 and 4 are not foods you would cook in a pan.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pan-fried”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.