diff --git a/.github/workflows/lint.yml b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
index b7403f9..ea15a0e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/lint.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
@@ -19,8 +19,4 @@ jobs:
         ruby-version: '3.1'
         bundler-cache: true
     - uses: r7kamura/rubocop-problem-matchers-action@v1 # this shows the failures in the PR
-
-    - run: |
-        # relative path in instance_eval has issues without chef as an explicit dependency
-        bundle exec gem install chef
-        bundle exec rake style
+    - run: bundle exec rake style
diff --git a/cheffish.gemspec b/cheffish.gemspec
index ec83020..9293193 100644
--- a/cheffish.gemspec
+++ b/cheffish.gemspec
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
 
   s.required_ruby_version = ">= 3.0"
 
+  s.add_dependency "chef", ">= 17.0"
   s.add_dependency "chef-zero", ">= 14.0"
   s.add_dependency "chef-utils", ">= 17.0"
   s.add_dependency "net-ssh"