diff --git a/common/recipes-phosphor/ipmi/phosphor-ipmi-host.bb b/common/recipes-phosphor/ipmi/phosphor-ipmi-host.bb
index fe32be2..180d70d 100644
--- a/common/recipes-phosphor/ipmi/phosphor-ipmi-host.bb
+++ b/common/recipes-phosphor/ipmi/phosphor-ipmi-host.bb
@@ -12,10 +12,18 @@
 inherit phosphor-ipmi-host
 inherit pythonnative
 
+def ipmi_whitelists(d):
+    whitelists = d.getVar(
+        'VIRTUAL-RUNTIME_phosphor-ipmi-providers', True) or ''
+    whitelists = whitelists.split()
+    whitelists = [ '{}-whitelist-native'.format(x) for x in whitelists ]
+    return ' '.join(whitelists)
+
+
 DEPENDS += "autoconf-archive-native"
 DEPENDS += "nlohmann-json"
 DEPENDS += "obmc-targets"
-DEPENDS += "packagegroup-obmc-ipmid-providers"
+DEPENDS += "${@ipmi_whitelists(d)}"
 DEPENDS += "phosphor-dbus-interfaces"
 DEPENDS += "phosphor-logging"
 DEPENDS += "phosphor-mapper"
diff --git a/common/recipes-phosphor/packagegroups/packagegroup-obmc-ipmid-providers.bb b/common/recipes-phosphor/packagegroups/packagegroup-obmc-ipmid-providers.bb
index 87d17f9..cbe7e7f 100644
--- a/common/recipes-phosphor/packagegroups/packagegroup-obmc-ipmid-providers.bb
+++ b/common/recipes-phosphor/packagegroups/packagegroup-obmc-ipmid-providers.bb
@@ -7,12 +7,5 @@
 PROVIDES = "${PACKAGES}"
 PACKAGES = "${PN}-libs"
 
-OBMC_IPMID_PROVIDERS = "phosphor-ipmi-fru"
-
 SUMMARY_${PN}-libs = "Extra providers for ipmid."
-RDEPENDS_${PN}-libs = "${OBMC_IPMID_PROVIDERS}"
-
-WHITELIST_FORMAT = "{0}-whitelist-native"
-OBMC_IPMID_WHITELISTS = "${@compose_list(d, 'WHITELIST_FORMAT', 'OBMC_IPMID_PROVIDERS')}"
-
-DEPENDS_append = "${OBMC_IPMID_WHITELISTS}"
+RDEPENDS_${PN}-libs = "${VIRTUAL-RUNTIME_phosphor-ipmi-providers}"
diff --git a/conf/distro/include/phosphor-defaults.inc b/conf/distro/include/phosphor-defaults.inc
index 2317d9a..5387f93 100644
--- a/conf/distro/include/phosphor-defaults.inc
+++ b/conf/distro/include/phosphor-defaults.inc
@@ -230,3 +230,15 @@
 
 OBMC_DBUS_PATH_ROOT ?= "/xyz/openbmc_project"
 OBMC_DBUS_IFACE_ROOT ?= "xyz.openbmc_project"
+
+# VIRTUAL-RUNTIME_phosphor-ipmi-providers are the set of shared library
+# plugins for the host-ipmid application.  By default the IPMI FRU plugin
+# is enabled.  Additionally the host-ipmid recipe uses
+# VIRTUAL-RUNTIME_phosphor-ipmi-providers to compute a list of potential
+# IPMI whitelist recipe dependencies.  For example:
+#
+# VIRTUAL-RUNTIME_phosphor-ipmi-providers ?= "phosphor-ipmi-fru"
+#
+# Will add a build dependency to host-ipmid on the
+# phosphor-ipmi-fru-whitelist-native recipe.
+VIRTUAL-RUNTIME_phosphor-ipmi-providers ?= "phosphor-ipmi-fru"