diff --git a/RestSharp/Extensions/MiscExtensions.cs b/RestSharp/Extensions/MiscExtensions.cs
index 9aa4c2dbc..eeeb644e9 100644
--- a/RestSharp/Extensions/MiscExtensions.cs
+++ b/RestSharp/Extensions/MiscExtensions.cs
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ public static string AsString(this byte[] buffer, string encoding)
             Encoding enc;
             try
             {
-                enc = Encoding.GetEncoding(encoding);
+                enc = !string.IsNullOrEmpty(encoding) ? Encoding.GetEncoding(encoding) : Encoding.UTF8;
             }
             catch (Exception)
             {