diff --git a/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build b/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build
index 7a14fe7ece..892ef5c9f1 100644
--- a/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build
+++ b/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build
@@ -70,13 +70,7 @@ endif
 core_conf.set('HAVE_ISO_CODES', have_iso_codes)
 
 # could drop optional zlib dep and use g_zlib_decompressor_new()
-zlib_dep = dependency('zlib', required : false)
-if not zlib_dep.found()
-  zlib_dep = cc.find_library('z', required : false)
-  if not zlib_dep.found() or not cc.has_header('zlib.h')
-    zlib_dep = subproject('zlib').get_variable('zlib_dep')
-  endif
-endif
+zlib_dep = dependency('zlib')
 core_conf.set('HAVE_ZLIB', true)
 
 tag_deps = [gst_base_dep, libm, zlib_dep]
diff --git a/subprojects/gst-plugins-good/meson.build b/subprojects/gst-plugins-good/meson.build
index 4390566594..42edbdd802 100644
--- a/subprojects/gst-plugins-good/meson.build
+++ b/subprojects/gst-plugins-good/meson.build
@@ -361,13 +361,7 @@ if have_gstgl
   endif
 endif
 
-zlib_dep = dependency('zlib', required : false)
-if not zlib_dep.found()
-  zlib_dep = cc.find_library('z', required : false)
-  if not zlib_dep.found() or not cc.has_header('zlib.h')
-    zlib_dep = subproject('zlib').get_variable('zlib_dep')
-  endif
-endif
+zlib_dep = dependency('zlib')
 cdata.set('HAVE_ZLIB', true)
 
 gio_dep = dependency('gio-2.0', version: glib_req)