MAMA’S BRAISED CHICKEN LEGS ON RICE W/ FRIED CHILI CAPERS

[ezcol_1third] IT IS, DILEMMA. FORTUNATELY, ONE THAT COULD BE TACKLED WITH A BIT OF REVERSE-ENGINEERING. [/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end] We don't, most times for good reasons, screw with heirloom recipes.  Recipes that are passed down for generations.  Recipes that our grandmother learnt from her grandmother, so on and so forth, are generally deemed as the sum of all collected wisdoms in a pot, sacred, untouchable.  Recipes that should and will be followed, obeyed even, without any desecrating thought of adding an extra tbsp of mustard here or a dash of unholy spices there, otherwise somewhere inside the dusty family album, grandma's tearing up.  Because this is how it has always been done, as far as recipes go, is an unarguable instruction. But should they be?  My family, for one, doesn't have an "heirloom recipe".  Not really.  My mom is a fantastic cook, which probably isn't a credit to both of my grandparents whom, from what I've heard, were either too short-lived or too much of a diva to teach her anything in the kitchen.  And as far as paying-it-forward goes, she never writes anything down.  So all in all, a single generation and one big approximation, I think, is probably not an heirloom recipe makes.  But, if I were to pass down anything