Chuan means string together, or connect. It is one of the easiest food words of all, because it looks exactly like what it is: a kabob! You'll commonly see it in reference to Lamb Kabobs 羊肉串.
Chan 丳, which has two sticks, means skewer. I haven't seen it in any of my regular references, but I have noticed it seems to refer to teriyaki. In either case, when you see it, it's a good bet you've got some grilled meat on a stick.
The pinyin spelling is chuàn or chuan4. (It's fourth tone: don't get it mixed up with first tone chuān, which is the short name for Sichuan province - 四川. This is why I don't get into conversational Chinese. Hit the wrong note, and you can say something completely different than you meant!)
And the pinyin for skewer is chǎn, or chan3. Third tone.
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