diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/watcher/support/search/WatcherSearchTemplateRequest.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/watcher/support/search/WatcherSearchTemplateRequest.java
index 7a2c6b857cb..a3e13fb6c6d 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/watcher/support/search/WatcherSearchTemplateRequest.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/watcher/support/search/WatcherSearchTemplateRequest.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesReference;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ToXContentObject;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentParser;
 import org.elasticsearch.script.Script;
 import org.elasticsearch.script.ScriptType;
@@ -195,7 +196,7 @@ public class WatcherSearchTemplateRequest implements ToXContentObject {
                 }
             } else if (token == XContentParser.Token.START_OBJECT) {
                 if (BODY_FIELD.match(currentFieldName)) {
-                    try (XContentBuilder builder = XContentBuilder.builder(parser.contentType().xContent())) {
+                    try (XContentBuilder builder = XContentFactory.jsonBuilder()) {
                         builder.copyCurrentStructure(parser);
                         searchSource = builder.bytes();
                     }