Khichra or khichda (Urdu: کھچڑا) is a variation of the dish haleem, popular with Muslims of the Indian subcontinent.

According to Shoaib Daniyal, writing in The Sunday Guardian, the first written recipe of harees dates to the 10th century, when Arab scribe Abu Muhammad al-Muzaffar ibn Sayyar compiled a cookbook of dishes popular with the "kings and caliphs and lords and leaders" of Baghdad.

"The version described in his Kitab Al-Tabikh (Book of Recipes), the world’s oldest surviving Arabic cookbook, is strikingly similar to the one people in the Middle East eat to this day", Daniyal reported.

This free food consisted of rice slowly cooked with mutton and various pulses, thus becoming rich in protein and carbohydrates.

Once the construction of the Imambargah was completed, the dish remained popular and can today be found not just in Lucknow, but a number of cities of the Indian subcontinent.