diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index dd64a73ed6..c09d662e03 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -487,7 +487,7 @@ jobs:
           command: |
             ROUTER_TAG=ghcr.io/apollographql/router
             # Build debug image
-            docker build --build-arg ROUTER_RELEASE=${VERSION} --build-arg DEBUG_IMAGE=":debug" -f dockerfiles/Dockerfile.router -t ${ROUTER_TAG}:${VERSION}-debug .
+            docker build --build-arg ROUTER_RELEASE=${VERSION} -f dockerfiles/Dockerfile.router -t ${ROUTER_TAG}:${VERSION}-debug .
             # Build release image
             docker build --build-arg ROUTER_RELEASE=${VERSION} -f dockerfiles/Dockerfile.router -t ${ROUTER_TAG}:${VERSION} .
             # Note: GH Token owned by apollo-bot2, no expire
diff --git a/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md b/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md
index b7240fef20..fefa615e58 100644
--- a/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md
@@ -70,6 +70,15 @@ By [@bnjjj](https://github.com/bnjjj) in https://github.com/apollographql/router
 By [@Geal](https://github.com/Geal) in https://github.com/apollographql/router/pull/2096
 
 ## 🛠 Maintenance
+
+### Use `debian:bullseye-slim` as our base Docker image ([PR #2085](https://github.com/apollographql/router/pull/2085))
+
+A while ago, when we added compression support to the router, we discovered that the Distroless base-images we were using didn't ship with a copy of `libz.so.1`. We addressed that problem by copying in a version of the library from the Distroless image (Java) which does ship it. While that worked, we found challenges in adding support for both `aarch64` and `amd64` Docker images that would make it less than ideal to continue using those Distroless images.
+
+Rather than persist with this complexity, we've concluded that it would be better to just use a base image which ships with `libz.so.1`, hence the change to `debian:bullseye-slim`.  Those images are still quite minimal and the resulting images are similar in size.
+
+By [@garypen](https://github.com/garypen) in https://github.com/apollographql/router/pull/2085
+
 ## 📚 Documentation
 
 ### Fix example `helm show values` command ([PR #2088](https://github.com/apollographql/router/pull/2088))
diff --git a/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.router b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.router
index 088a4c0e4f..40d475ef3d 100644
--- a/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.router
+++ b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.router
@@ -1,6 +1,4 @@
-ARG DEBUG_IMAGE
-# Build is required to extract the release files
-FROM --platform=linux/amd64 debian:bullseye-slim AS build
+FROM debian:bullseye-slim
 
 ARG ROUTER_RELEASE=latest
 
@@ -22,23 +20,9 @@ RUN mkdir config schema
 # Copy configuration for docker image
 COPY dockerfiles/router.yaml config
 
-# Required so we can copy in libz.so.1
-FROM --platform=linux/amd64 gcr.io/distroless/java17-debian11${DEBUG_IMAGE} as libz-required
-
-# Final image uses distroless
-FROM --platform=linux/amd64 gcr.io/distroless/cc-debian11${DEBUG_IMAGE}
-
 LABEL org.opencontainers.image.authors="Apollo Graph, Inc. https://github.com/apollographql/router"
 LABEL org.opencontainers.image.source="https://github.com/apollographql/router"
 
-# Copy in the extracted/created files
-COPY --from=libz-required /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1
-
-WORKDIR /dist
-
-# Copy in the extracted/created files
-COPY --from=build --chown=root:root /dist .
-
 ENV APOLLO_ROUTER_CONFIG_PATH="/dist/config/router.yaml"
 
 # Default executable is the router
diff --git a/dockerfiles/diy/build_docker_image.sh b/dockerfiles/diy/build_docker_image.sh
index 60389a6b38..208f9b756b 100755
--- a/dockerfiles/diy/build_docker_image.sh
+++ b/dockerfiles/diy/build_docker_image.sh
@@ -122,8 +122,10 @@ fi
 echo "Building in: ${BUILD_DIR}"
 
 # Copy in our dockerfiles, we'll need them later
-cp dockerfiles/* "${BUILD_DIR}" || terminate "Couldn't copy dockerfiles to ${BUILD_DIR}"
-cp ../router.yaml "${BUILD_DIR}" || terminate "Couldn't copy ../router.yaml to ${BUILD_DIR}"
+mkdir "${BUILD_DIR}/dockerfiles"
+cp dockerfiles/Dockerfile.repo "${BUILD_DIR}" || terminate "Couldn't copy dockerfiles to ${BUILD_DIR}"
+cp ../Dockerfile.router "${BUILD_DIR}" || terminate "Couldn't copy dockerfiles to ${BUILD_DIR}"
+cp ../router.yaml "${BUILD_DIR}/dockerfiles" || terminate "Couldn't copy ../router.yaml to ${BUILD_DIR}"
 
 # Change to our build directory
 cd "${BUILD_DIR}" || terminate "Couldn't cd to ${BUILD_DIR}";
@@ -149,7 +151,7 @@ else
     echo "Building image: ${ROUTER_VERSION}" from released version""
     docker build -q -t "router:${ROUTER_VERSION}" \
         --build-arg ROUTER_RELEASE="${ROUTER_VERSION}" \
-        --no-cache -f Dockerfile.release . \
+        --no-cache -f Dockerfile.router . \
         || terminate "Couldn't build router image"
 fi
 
diff --git a/dockerfiles/diy/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.release b/dockerfiles/diy/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.release
deleted file mode 100644
index 54c13245d1..0000000000
--- a/dockerfiles/diy/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.release
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,47 +0,0 @@
-# Note: We require linux/amd64 images here, because we are definitely
-# downloading linux/amd64 images from github and would like our image
-# builds to work on platforms such as Mac OS X/M1 (with some help from
-# rosetta)
-# Build is required to extract the release files
-FROM --platform=linux/amd64 debian:bullseye-slim AS build
-
-ARG ROUTER_RELEASE=latest
-
-WORKDIR /dist
-
-# Install curl
-RUN \
-  apt-get update -y \
-  && apt-get install -y \
-    curl \
-  && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
-
-# Run the Router downloader which puts Router into current working directory
-RUN curl -sSL https://router.apollo.dev/download/nix/${ROUTER_RELEASE}/ | sh
-
-# Make directories for config and schema
-RUN mkdir config schema
-
-# Copy configuration for docker image
-COPY router.yaml config
-
-# Required so we can copy in libz.so.1
-FROM --platform=linux/amd64 gcr.io/distroless/java17-debian11 as libz-required
-
-# Final image uses distroless. Feel free to change this to an image that suits your needs.
-FROM --platform=linux/amd64 gcr.io/distroless/cc-debian11
-
-LABEL org.opencontainers.image.authors="Apollo Graph, Inc. https://github.com/apollographql/router"
-
-# Copy in the extracted/created files
-COPY --from=libz-required /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1
-
-WORKDIR /dist
-
-# Copy in the extracted/created files
-COPY --from=build --chown=root:root /dist .
-
-ENV APOLLO_ROUTER_CONFIG_PATH="/dist/config/router.yaml"
-
-# Default executable is the router
-ENTRYPOINT ["/dist/router"]
diff --git a/dockerfiles/diy/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.repo b/dockerfiles/diy/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.repo
index 296e2eb894..3e0a5b9664 100644
--- a/dockerfiles/diy/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.repo
+++ b/dockerfiles/diy/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.repo
@@ -28,17 +28,11 @@ RUN mkdir -p /dist/config && \
 # Copy configuration for docker image
 COPY dockerfiles/router.yaml /dist/config
 
-# Required so we can copy in libz.so.1
-FROM --platform=linux/amd64 gcr.io/distroless/java17-debian11 as libz-required
+FROM debian:bullseye-slim
 
-# Final image uses distroless. Feel free to change this to an image that suits your needs.
-FROM gcr.io/distroless/cc-debian11
-
-# Set a label for our image
-LABEL org.opencontainers.image.authors="ApolloGraphQL https://github.com/apollographql/router"
-
-# Copy in the extracted/created files
-COPY --from=libz-required /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1
+# Set labels for our image
+LABEL org.opencontainers.image.authors="Apollo Graph, Inc. https://github.com/apollographql/router"
+LABEL org.opencontainers.image.source="https://github.com/apollographql/router"
 
 # Copy in the required files from our build image
 COPY --from=build --chown=root:root /dist /dist