I tried and ranked 5 of Martha Stewart's slow cooker dinner recipes, and the best one was surprisingly easy

The recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken thighs, onions, garlic, ginger, frozen green peas, unsweetened coconut milk, and spices.

The first step is to toss the chicken, onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder, coriander, and cumin in the slow cooker and let it cook for four hours on high. Then, you stir in the coconut milk and peas and let it continue cooking for another 20 minutes.

I deemed this dish to be a loose adaptation of traditional curry. Stewart's recipe calls for curry powder, cumin, and coriander. However, according to Bon Appetit, "curry," in reference to most curry products on store shelves, has become "a reductionist term" that is distant from its origins in India.

The curry liquid was slightly watery and tasted a little too strongly of coconut. The peas were an OK addition, and though the chicken was perfectly tender, the flavor just wasn't there. It needed way more spice to make this a truly standout dish in my book. In fact, my roommate ended up adding sriracha and mango chutney to her bowl to make it more appetizing.

Other people seem to agree — the dish was awarded three and a half stars on Stewart's website, with one user writing, "Doubling the spices helped but the coconut milk didn't benefit the dish and only added calories and a flavor that didn't seem to have a purpose ... Too many peas, carrots and potatoes might have been better."

If you want to try it for yourself, you can find the recipe in "Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker" and online here.

The recipe said to add vegetables and herbs to the slow cooker — before adding in the salmon, it looked like a very sad soup. It called for a halved shallot, carrot, two celery stalks, lemon slices, a bay leaf, thyme, and six peppercorns, as well as dry white wine and water.

It was lovely being able to simply walk away from the slow cooker after adding all the ingredients, knowing it would be cooked perfectly after an hour on high. The salmon easily flaked apart and was perfectly cooked.

Its ingredients included cilantro, parsley, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

However, the dish was still very simple, and the salmon desperately needed the salsa verde to add a little bit of flavor. It wasn't something I would make for a special event, but it was extremely easy to make for a worknight.

You can find the recipe in "Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker."

The recipe calls for a halved, two-and-a-quarter pound boneless pork shoulder onion, oregano, bay leaves, chipotle, adobo sauce, crushed tomatoes, whole tomatoes in puree, salt, and pepper.

This isn't your typical barbecue pulled pork, but I was excited to see how it would turn out.

One piece of the meat was able to break apart with a fork, but the other was still a little tough. I would have liked to let the meat cook for another hour or two, but since it was already past dinnertime, I decided to just break it apart the best I could.

If you wanted to make this for yourself, definitely wait until the meat is super tender before eating it.

I made my own homemade coleslaw and served it on a white potato roll. The finished product was delicious, but I was craving a little barbecue sauce to make it even better. The meat I was able to pull apart was tender and flavorful, while the coleslaw and pickles added freshness and crunch.

You can find the recipe in "Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker" and online here.

The recipe calls for three cups of white sharp cheddar cheese and one cup of Gruyere in the macaroni and cheese mixture. The third and final cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano, is later added to the breadcrumb mixture.

In addition to three kinds of cheese, the recipe called for milk and two cans of evaporated milk. The ingredients came together to make the most decadent, creamy, and delicious mac and cheese I've ever had.

The macaroni and cheese only took an hour and a half on high to finish cooking — in addition to being delicious, it was much quicker than other slow cooker recipes I've tried.

This was by far the most flavorful macaroni and cheese I've ever had, and I thought it was very easy to make in the slow cooker.

My only complaint was that the bottom layer of macaroni and cheese could have been creamier — it was a little watery compared to the top layers. However, it probably would have cooked through more evenly with a little longer in the slow cooker.

You can find the recipe in "Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker."

This recipe also called for only a few ingredients: chicken thighs, two onions, ginger, garlic, jalapeño, and a couple of ingredients to make the chutney. I browned the onions before adding them into the slow cooker and layering in the other ingredients.

A friend I was cooking for this night has an aversion to jalapeño, so I added in a few dashes of red pepper flakes to give the dish a slight kick instead.

The chicken thighs didn't need to be seared or browned first before adding them in, according to the recipe. However, in hindsight, I think this would have made the dish even more delicious.

After cooking the chicken on high for two hours, I spread the chutney over the chicken thighs and let it sit for another half an hour.

I paired the chicken thighs with rice and a dollop of yogurt, per the recipe's instructions. It tasted fresh, light, and delicious.

The short ingredient list for this recipe made it even better in my mind. When I'm preparing a weeknight dinner, it's nice to use recipes that only require a few basic ingredients.

I found that when I stepped away from the week, I remembered how to make all the dishes because of how simple they were.

You can find the recipe in "Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker" and online here.