diff --git a/packages/nx/src/plugins/js/project-graph/build-dependencies/explicit-package-json-dependencies.ts b/packages/nx/src/plugins/js/project-graph/build-dependencies/explicit-package-json-dependencies.ts
index 4485305db2bfd7..2dcd4c5ca5e40d 100644
--- a/packages/nx/src/plugins/js/project-graph/build-dependencies/explicit-package-json-dependencies.ts
+++ b/packages/nx/src/plugins/js/project-graph/build-dependencies/explicit-package-json-dependencies.ts
@@ -1,15 +1,15 @@
-import { defaultFileRead } from '../../../../project-graph/file-utils';
 import { join } from 'path';
 import {
   DependencyType,
   ProjectFileMap,
   ProjectGraph,
 } from '../../../../config/project-graph';
-import { parseJson } from '../../../../utils/json';
 import { getImportPath, joinPathFragments } from '../../../../utils/path';
 import { ProjectsConfigurations } from '../../../../config/workspace-json-project-json';
 import { NxJsonConfiguration } from '../../../../config/nx-json';
 import { ExplicitDependency } from './explicit-project-dependencies';
+import { PackageJson } from '../../../../utils/package-json';
+import { readJsonFile } from '../../../../utils/fileutils';
 
 class ProjectGraphNodeRecords {}
 
@@ -47,13 +47,8 @@ function createPackageNameMap(
   const res = {};
   for (let projectName of Object.keys(projectsConfigurations.projects)) {
     try {
-      const packageJson = parseJson(
-        defaultFileRead(
-          join(
-            projectsConfigurations.projects[projectName].root,
-            'package.json'
-          )
-        )
+      const packageJson = readJsonFile(
+        join(projectsConfigurations.projects[projectName].root, 'package.json')
       );
       res[
         packageJson.name ??
@@ -83,7 +78,7 @@ function processPackageJson(
   packageNameMap: { [packageName: string]: string }
 ) {
   try {
-    const deps = readDeps(parseJson(defaultFileRead(fileName)));
+    const deps = readJsonFile(fileName);
     // the name matches the import path
     deps.forEach((d) => {
       // package.json refers to another project in the monorepo
@@ -110,10 +105,11 @@ function processPackageJson(
   }
 }
 
-function readDeps(packageJsonDeps: any) {
+function readDeps(packageJson: PackageJson) {
   return [
-    ...Object.keys(packageJsonDeps?.dependencies ?? {}),
-    ...Object.keys(packageJsonDeps?.devDependencies ?? {}),
-    ...Object.keys(packageJsonDeps?.peerDependencies ?? {}),
+    ...Object.keys(packageJson?.dependencies ?? {}),
+    ...Object.keys(packageJson?.devDependencies ?? {}),
+    ...Object.keys(packageJson?.peerDependencies ?? {}),
+    ...Object.keys(packageJson?.optionalDependencies ?? {}),
   ];
 }