diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index fd7dbce2e5b..be7378c3cb8 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -4683,92 +4683,6 @@ endif()
 
 if (gRPC_BUILD_TESTS)
 
-add_library(ares
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares__close_sockets.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares__get_hostent.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares__read_line.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares__timeval.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_cancel.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_create_query.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_data.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_destroy.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_expand_name.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_expand_string.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_fds.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_free_hostent.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_free_string.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_getenv.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_gethostbyaddr.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_gethostbyname.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_getnameinfo.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_getopt.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_getsock.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_init.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_library_init.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_llist.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_mkquery.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_nowarn.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_options.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_parse_a_reply.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_parse_aaaa_reply.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_parse_mx_reply.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_parse_naptr_reply.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_parse_ns_reply.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_parse_ptr_reply.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_parse_soa_reply.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_parse_srv_reply.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_parse_txt_reply.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_platform.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_process.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_query.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_search.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_send.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_strcasecmp.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_strdup.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_strerror.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_timeout.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_version.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/ares_writev.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/bitncmp.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/inet_net_pton.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/inet_ntop.c
-  third_party/cares/cares/windows_port.c
-)
-
-if(WIN32 AND MSVC)
-  set_target_properties(ares PROPERTIES COMPILE_PDB_NAME "ares"
-    COMPILE_PDB_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}"
-  )
-  if (gRPC_INSTALL)
-    install(FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/ares.pdb
-      DESTINATION ${gRPC_INSTALL_LIBDIR} OPTIONAL
-    )
-  endif()
-endif()
-
-
-target_include_directories(ares
-  PUBLIC $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:${gRPC_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}> $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include>
-  PRIVATE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
-  PRIVATE ${BORINGSSL_ROOT_DIR}/include
-  PRIVATE ${PROTOBUF_ROOT_DIR}/src
-  PRIVATE ${ZLIB_INCLUDE_DIR}
-  PRIVATE ${BENCHMARK}/include
-  PRIVATE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/third_party/zlib
-  PRIVATE ${CARES_INCLUDE_DIR}
-  PRIVATE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/third_party/cares/cares
-  PRIVATE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/third_party/gflags/include
-)
-
-target_link_libraries(ares
-  ${_gRPC_SSL_LIBRARIES}
-  ${_gRPC_ALLTARGETS_LIBRARIES}
-)
-
-
-endif (gRPC_BUILD_TESTS)
-if (gRPC_BUILD_TESTS)
-
 add_library(bad_client_test
   test/core/bad_client/bad_client.cc
 )
diff --git a/templates/CMakeLists.txt.template b/templates/CMakeLists.txt.template
index f89371057f4..5ce38b557f5 100644
--- a/templates/CMakeLists.txt.template
+++ b/templates/CMakeLists.txt.template
@@ -445,7 +445,7 @@
   % for lib in libs:
   % if lib.build in ["all", "protoc", "tool", "test", "private"] and not lib.boringssl:
   % if not lib.get('build_system', []) or 'cmake' in lib.get('build_system', []):
-  % if not lib.name in ['benchmark', 'z']:  # we build these using CMake instead
+  % if not lib.name in ['ares', 'benchmark', 'z']:  # we build these using CMake instead
   % if lib.build in ["test", "private"]:
   if (gRPC_BUILD_TESTS)
   ${cc_library(lib)}