diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/ChainEncoder.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/ChainEncoder.php
index 73fdd64959..ebb81efb9f 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/ChainEncoder.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/ChainEncoder.php
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 namespace Symfony\Component\Serializer\Encoder;
 
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Encoder\EncoderInterface;
+use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Encoder\NormalizationAwareInterface;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Exception\RuntimeException;
 
 /**
@@ -53,6 +54,28 @@ class ChainEncoder implements EncoderInterface
         return true;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Checks whether the normalization is needed for the given format.
+     *
+     * @param string $format
+     *
+     * @return Boolean
+     */
+    public function needsNormalization($format)
+    {
+        $encoder = $this->getEncoder($format);
+
+        if (!$encoder instanceof NormalizationAwareInterface) {
+            return true;
+        }
+
+        if ($encoder instanceof self) {
+            return $encoder->needsNormalization($format);
+        }
+
+        return false;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Gets the encoder supporting the format.
      *
@@ -61,7 +84,7 @@ class ChainEncoder implements EncoderInterface
      * @return EncoderInterface
      * @throws RuntimeException if no encoder is found
      */
-    public function getEncoder($format)
+    private function getEncoder($format)
     {
         if (isset($this->encoderByFormat[$format])
             && isset($this->encoders[$this->encoderByFormat[$format]])
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Serializer.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Serializer.php
index 15587fbf81..f2c513baec 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Serializer.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Serializer.php
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Encoder\ChainDecoder;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Encoder\ChainEncoder;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Encoder\EncoderInterface;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Encoder\DecoderInterface;
-use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Encoder\NormalizationAwareInterface;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\NormalizerInterface;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\DenormalizerInterface;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Exception\RuntimeException;
@@ -41,11 +40,8 @@ class Serializer implements SerializerInterface, NormalizerInterface, Denormaliz
     protected $encoder;
     protected $decoder;
     protected $normalizers = array();
-    protected $encoders = array();
     protected $normalizerCache = array();
     protected $denormalizerCache = array();
-    protected $encoderByFormat = array();
-    protected $decoderByFormat = array();
 
     public function __construct(array $normalizers = array(), array $encoders = array())
     {
@@ -82,9 +78,7 @@ class Serializer implements SerializerInterface, NormalizerInterface, Denormaliz
             throw new UnexpectedValueException('Serialization for the format '.$format.' is not supported');
         }
 
-        $encoder = $this->encoder->getEncoder($format);
-
-        if (!$encoder instanceof NormalizationAwareInterface) {
+        if ($this->encoder->needsNormalization($format)) {
             $data = $this->normalize($data, $format);
         }