diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/basic/SearchWhileCreatingIndexIT.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/basic/SearchWhileCreatingIndexIT.java
index 1ff2d6922f98b..4748b6292c417 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/basic/SearchWhileCreatingIndexIT.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/basic/SearchWhileCreatingIndexIT.java
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Client;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.health.ClusterHealthStatus;
-import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.IndexShardRoutingTable;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilders;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.ESIntegTestCase;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.junit.annotations.TestLogging;
@@ -74,21 +73,13 @@ private void searchWhileCreatingIndex(boolean createIndex, int numberOfReplicas)
 
         logger.info("using preference {}", preference);
         // we want to make sure that while recovery happens, and a replica gets recovered, its properly refreshed
-        ClusterHealthStatus status = client().admin().cluster().prepareHealth("test").get().getStatus();
-
+        ClusterHealthStatus status = client().admin().cluster().prepareHealth("test").get().getStatus();;
         while (status != ClusterHealthStatus.GREEN) {
-            // first, verify that search on the primary search works
-            for (IndexShardRoutingTable shardRoutingTable : clusterService().state().routingTable().index("test")) {
-                String primaryNode = shardRoutingTable.primaryShard().currentNodeId();
-                SearchResponse searchResponse = client().prepareSearch("test")
-                    .setPreference("_only_nodes:" + primaryNode)
-                    .setQuery(QueryBuilders.termQuery("field", "test"))
-                    .execute().actionGet();
-                assertHitCount(searchResponse, 1);
-                break;
-            }
+            // first, verify that search normal search works
+            SearchResponse searchResponse = client().prepareSearch("test").setQuery(QueryBuilders.termQuery("field", "test")).execute().actionGet();
+            assertHitCount(searchResponse, 1);
             Client client = client();
-            SearchResponse searchResponse = client.prepareSearch("test").setPreference(preference + Integer.toString(counter++)).setQuery(QueryBuilders.termQuery("field", "test")).execute().actionGet();
+            searchResponse = client.prepareSearch("test").setPreference(preference + Integer.toString(counter++)).setQuery(QueryBuilders.termQuery("field", "test")).execute().actionGet();
             if (searchResponse.getHits().getTotalHits() != 1) {
                 refresh();
                 SearchResponse searchResponseAfterRefresh = client.prepareSearch("test").setPreference(preference).setQuery(QueryBuilders.termQuery("field", "test")).execute().actionGet();
@@ -102,13 +93,6 @@ private void searchWhileCreatingIndex(boolean createIndex, int numberOfReplicas)
             status = client().admin().cluster().prepareHealth("test").get().getStatus();
             internalCluster().ensureAtLeastNumDataNodes(numberOfReplicas + 1);
         }
-
-        for (String node : internalCluster().nodesInclude("test")) {
-            SearchResponse searchResponse = client().prepareSearch("test")
-                .setPreference("_prefer_nodes:" + node)
-                .setQuery(QueryBuilders.termQuery("field", "test")).execute().actionGet();
-            assertHitCount(searchResponse, 1);
-        }
         cluster().wipeIndices("test");
     }
 }