diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 6619720f50dd..ee77a3d88e0a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -224,6 +224,7 @@ ifeq ($(ARCH),m68knommu)
 endif
 
 KCONFIG_CONFIG	?= .config
+export KCONFIG_CONFIG
 
 # SHELL used by kbuild
 CONFIG_SHELL := $(shell if [ -x "$$BASH" ]; then echo $$BASH; \
diff --git a/kernel/Makefile b/kernel/Makefile
index 0b5ff083fa22..33e0a39cf359 100644
--- a/kernel/Makefile
+++ b/kernel/Makefile
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ $(obj)/configs.o: $(obj)/config_data.h
 # config_data.h contains the same information as ikconfig.h but gzipped.
 # Info from config_data can be extracted from /proc/config*
 targets += config_data.gz
-$(obj)/config_data.gz: .config FORCE
+$(obj)/config_data.gz: $(KCONFIG_CONFIG) FORCE
 	$(call if_changed,gzip)
 
 quiet_cmd_ikconfiggz = IKCFG   $@