diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index ea020992..011a7fde 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 ### Removed
 
 * Removed the Filter Extension depenency from `AggregationExtensionPostRequest` and `AggregationExtensionGetRequest` [#716](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi/pull/716)
+* Removed `add_middleware` method in `StacApi` object and let starlette handle the middleware stack creation [721](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi/pull/721)
 
 ## [3.0.0a3] - 2024-06-13
 
diff --git a/stac_fastapi/api/stac_fastapi/api/app.py b/stac_fastapi/api/stac_fastapi/api/app.py
index 5fe7f9d0..b4f5125f 100644
--- a/stac_fastapi/api/stac_fastapi/api/app.py
+++ b/stac_fastapi/api/stac_fastapi/api/app.py
@@ -439,11 +439,6 @@ def add_route_dependencies(
         """
         return add_route_dependencies(self.app.router.routes, scopes, dependencies)
 
-    def add_middleware(self, middleware: Middleware):
-        """Add a middleware class to the application."""
-        self.app.user_middleware.insert(0, middleware)
-        self.app.middleware_stack = self.app.build_middleware_stack()
-
     def __attrs_post_init__(self):
         """Post-init hook.
 
@@ -484,7 +479,7 @@ def __attrs_post_init__(self):
 
         # add middlewares
         for middleware in self.middlewares:
-            self.add_middleware(middleware)
+            self.app.user_middleware.insert(0, middleware)
 
         # customize route dependencies
         for scopes, dependencies in self.route_dependencies:
diff --git a/stac_fastapi/api/tests/test_middleware.py b/stac_fastapi/api/tests/test_middleware.py
index 041dc410..00e7f803 100644
--- a/stac_fastapi/api/tests/test_middleware.py
+++ b/stac_fastapi/api/tests/test_middleware.py
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 from unittest import mock
 
 import pytest
+from fastapi import Request
+from fastapi.responses import JSONResponse
 from starlette.applications import Starlette
 from starlette.testclient import TestClient
 
@@ -166,3 +168,31 @@ def test_cors_middleware(test_client):
     resp = test_client.get("/_mgmt/ping", headers={"Origin": "http://netloc"})
     assert resp.status_code == 200
     assert resp.headers["access-control-allow-origin"] == "*"
+
+
+def test_middleware_stack():
+    stac_api = StacApi(
+        settings=ApiSettings(), client=mock.create_autospec(BaseCoreClient)
+    )
+
+    def exception_handler(request: Request, exc: Exception) -> JSONResponse:
+        return JSONResponse(
+            status_code=400,
+            content={"customerrordetail": "yoo", "body": "yo"},
+        )
+
+    class CustomException(Exception):
+        "Custom Exception"
+
+        pass
+
+    stac_api.app.add_exception_handler(CustomException, exception_handler)
+
+    @stac_api.app.get("/error")
+    def error_endpoint():
+        raise CustomException("got you!")
+
+    with TestClient(stac_api.app) as client:
+        resp = client.get("/error")
+        assert resp.status_code == 400
+        assert resp.json()["customerrordetail"] == "yoo"