diff --git a/chef-cli.gemspec b/chef-cli.gemspec
index 99c65a4d..31351a63 100644
--- a/chef-cli.gemspec
+++ b/chef-cli.gemspec
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |gem|
 
   gem.add_dependency "mixlib-cli", ">= 1.7", "< 3.0"
   gem.add_dependency "mixlib-shellout", ">= 2.0", "< 4.0"
-  gem.add_dependency "ffi-yajl", ">= 1.0", "< 3.0"
+  gem.add_dependency "ffi-yajl", ">= 2.2", "< 4.0", "!= 3.0.0"
   gem.add_dependency "minitar", "~> 1.0"
   gem.add_dependency "chef", ">= 18.0", "< 20.0"
   gem.add_dependency "solve", "> 2.0", "< 5.0"