diff --git a/celery/app/task.py b/celery/app/task.py
index f8ffaefaffd..fe9c039c0ba 100644
--- a/celery/app/task.py
+++ b/celery/app/task.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
 from celery import current_app, group, states
 from celery._state import _task_stack
-from celery.canvas import signature
+from celery.canvas import _chain, signature
 from celery.exceptions import (Ignore, ImproperlyConfigured,
                                MaxRetriesExceededError, Reject, Retry)
 from celery.local import class_property
@@ -880,6 +880,11 @@ def replace(self, sig):
                 link=self.request.callbacks,
                 link_error=self.request.errbacks,
             )
+        elif isinstance(sig, _chain):
+            if not sig.tasks:
+                raise ImproperlyConfigured(
+                    "Cannot replace with an empty chain"
+                )
 
         if self.request.chain:
             # We need to freeze the new signature with the current task's ID to
diff --git a/t/integration/tasks.py b/t/integration/tasks.py
index 8aa13bc1797..1aaeed32378 100644
--- a/t/integration/tasks.py
+++ b/t/integration/tasks.py
@@ -100,6 +100,11 @@ def replace_with_chain_which_raises(self, *args, link_msg=None):
     return self.replace(c)
 
 
+@shared_task(bind=True)
+def replace_with_empty_chain(self, *_):
+    return self.replace(chain())
+
+
 @shared_task(bind=True)
 def add_to_all(self, nums, val):
     """Add the given value to all supplied numbers."""
diff --git a/t/integration/test_canvas.py b/t/integration/test_canvas.py
index 4ae027fb10a..97a6b58d112 100644
--- a/t/integration/test_canvas.py
+++ b/t/integration/test_canvas.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
 from celery import chain, chord, group, signature
 from celery.backends.base import BaseKeyValueStoreBackend
-from celery.exceptions import TimeoutError
+from celery.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured, TimeoutError
 from celery.result import AsyncResult, GroupResult, ResultSet
 
 from . import tasks
@@ -15,9 +15,10 @@
                     add_to_all, add_to_all_to_chord, build_chain_inside_task,
                     chord_error, collect_ids, delayed_sum,
                     delayed_sum_with_soft_guard, fail, identity, ids,
-                    print_unicode, raise_error, redis_echo, retry_once,
-                    return_exception, return_priority, second_order_replace1,
-                    tsum, replace_with_chain, replace_with_chain_which_raises)
+                    print_unicode, raise_error, redis_echo,
+                    replace_with_chain, replace_with_chain_which_raises,
+                    replace_with_empty_chain, retry_once, return_exception,
+                    return_priority, second_order_replace1, tsum)
 
 RETRYABLE_EXCEPTIONS = (OSError, ConnectionError, TimeoutError)
 
@@ -584,6 +585,13 @@ def test_chain_with_eb_replaced_with_chain_with_eb(self, manager):
         assert redis_connection.blpop('redis-echo', min(1, TIMEOUT)) is None
         redis_connection.delete('redis-echo')
 
+    def test_replace_chain_with_empty_chain(self, manager):
+        r = chain(identity.s(1), replace_with_empty_chain.s()).delay()
+
+        with pytest.raises(ImproperlyConfigured,
+                           match="Cannot replace with an empty chain"):
+            r.get(timeout=TIMEOUT)
+
 
 class test_result_set: