diff --git a/builder/amazon/common/access_config.go b/builder/amazon/common/access_config.go
index 6228f35b2..862a64d21 100644
--- a/builder/amazon/common/access_config.go
+++ b/builder/amazon/common/access_config.go
@@ -3,14 +3,12 @@ package common
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
-	"os"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/awserr"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/credentials"
-	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/credentials/ec2rolecreds"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/ec2metadata"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/session"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/go-cleanhttp"
@@ -38,66 +36,13 @@ func (c *AccessConfig) Session() (*session.Session, error) {
 		return c.session, nil
 	}
 
-	// build a chain provider, lazy-evaluated by aws-sdk
-	providers := []credentials.Provider{
-		&credentials.StaticProvider{Value: credentials.Value{
-			AccessKeyID:     c.AccessKey,
-			SecretAccessKey: c.SecretKey,
-			SessionToken:    c.Token,
-		}},
-		&credentials.EnvProvider{},
-		&credentials.SharedCredentialsProvider{
-			Filename: "",
-			Profile:  c.ProfileName,
-		},
-	}
-
-	// Build isolated HTTP client to avoid issues with globally-shared settings
-	client := cleanhttp.DefaultClient()
-
-	// Keep the default timeout (100ms) low as we don't want to wait in non-EC2 environments
-	client.Timeout = 100 * time.Millisecond
-
-	const userTimeoutEnvVar = "AWS_METADATA_TIMEOUT"
-	userTimeout := os.Getenv(userTimeoutEnvVar)
-	if userTimeout != "" {
-		newTimeout, err := time.ParseDuration(userTimeout)
-		if err == nil {
-			if newTimeout.Nanoseconds() > 0 {
-				client.Timeout = newTimeout
-			} else {
-				log.Printf("[WARN] Non-positive value of %s (%s) is meaningless, ignoring", userTimeoutEnvVar, newTimeout.String())
-			}
-		} else {
-			log.Printf("[WARN] Error converting %s to time.Duration: %s", userTimeoutEnvVar, err)
-		}
-	}
-
-	log.Printf("[INFO] Setting AWS metadata API timeout to %s", client.Timeout.String())
-	cfg := &aws.Config{
-		HTTPClient: client,
-	}
-	if !c.SkipMetadataApiCheck {
-		// Real AWS should reply to a simple metadata request.
-		// We check it actually does to ensure something else didn't just
-		// happen to be listening on the same IP:Port
-		metadataClient := ec2metadata.New(session.New(cfg))
-		if metadataClient.Available() {
-			providers = append(providers, &ec2rolecreds.EC2RoleProvider{
-				Client: metadataClient,
-			})
-			log.Print("[INFO] AWS EC2 instance detected via default metadata" +
-				" API endpoint, EC2RoleProvider added to the auth chain")
-		} else {
-			log.Printf("[INFO] Ignoring AWS metadata API endpoint " +
-				"as it doesn't return any instance-id")
-		}
-	}
-
-	creds := credentials.NewChainCredentials(providers)
-
 	config := aws.NewConfig().WithCredentialsChainVerboseErrors(true)
 
+	staticCreds := credentials.NewStaticCredentials(c.AccessKey, c.SecretKey, c.Token)
+	if _, err := staticCreds.Get(); err != credentials.ErrStaticCredentialsEmpty {
+		config.WithCredentials(staticCreds)
+	}
+
 	if c.RawRegion != "" {
 		config = config.WithRegion(c.RawRegion)
 	} else if region := c.metadataRegion(); region != "" {
@@ -123,8 +68,6 @@ func (c *AccessConfig) Session() (*session.Session, error) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	config = config.WithCredentials(creds)
-
 	if sess, err := session.NewSessionWithOptions(opts); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	} else if *sess.Config.Region == "" {
@@ -185,6 +128,9 @@ func (c *AccessConfig) metadataRegion() string {
 func (c *AccessConfig) Prepare(ctx *interpolate.Context) []error {
 	var errs []error
 
+	if c.SkipMetadataApiCheck {
+		log.Println("(WARN) skip_metadata_api_check ignored.")
+	}
 	// Either both access and secret key must be set or neither of them should
 	// be.
 	if (len(c.AccessKey) > 0) != (len(c.SecretKey) > 0) {
diff --git a/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md b/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md
index 21dad780a..8af3f101f 100644
--- a/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md
+++ b/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.md
@@ -123,14 +123,6 @@ This is a preferred approach over any other when running in EC2 as you can
 avoid hard coding credentials. Instead these are leased on-the-fly by Packer,
 which reduces the chance of leakage.
 
-The default deadline for the EC2 metadata API endpoint is 100 milliseconds,
-which can be overidden by setting the `AWS_METADATA_TIMEOUT` environment
-variable. The variable expects a positive golang Time.Duration string, which is
-a sequence of decimal numbers and a unit suffix; valid suffixes are `ns`
-(nanoseconds), `us` (microseconds), `ms` (milliseconds), `s` (seconds), `m`
-(minutes), and `h` (hours). Examples of valid inputs: `100ms`, `250ms`, `1s`,
-`2.5s`, `2.5m`, `1m30s`.
-
 The following policy document provides the minimal set permissions necessary
 for Packer to work: