> and it outputs a json serialized array as html Actually, it renders a raw JSON response - a single object of 'unguarded' attributes (all by default) for the

> and it outputs a json serialized array as html Actually, it renders a raw JSON response - a single object of 'unguarded' attributes (all by default) for the model with Content-Type: application/json set. It has nothing to do with HTML. Your syntax is invalid too. To do what you want you'd actually call return Model::where('asdf', 1)->first();