diff --git a/locals.tf b/locals.tf
index 09dd589214..eeac2e3264 100644
--- a/locals.tf
+++ b/locals.tf
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+data "aws_region" "current" {}
+
 locals {
 
   # EKS Cluster
@@ -162,12 +164,21 @@ locals {
     "t2.xlarge"
   ]
 
+  default_kubeconfig_aws_auth_args = [
+    "eks",
+    "get-token",
+    "--cluster-name",
+    var.cluster_name,
+    "--region",
+    data.aws_region.current.name
+  ]
+
   kubeconfig = var.create_eks ? templatefile("${path.module}/templates/kubeconfig.tpl", {
     kubeconfig_name                   = coalesce(var.kubeconfig_name, "eks_${var.cluster_name}")
     endpoint                          = local.cluster_endpoint
     cluster_auth_base64               = local.cluster_auth_base64
-    aws_authenticator_command         = var.kubeconfig_aws_authenticator_command
-    aws_authenticator_command_args    = coalescelist(var.kubeconfig_aws_authenticator_command_args, ["token", "-i", local.cluster_name])
+    aws_authenticator_command         = coalesce(var.kubeconfig_aws_authenticator_command, "aws")
+    aws_authenticator_command_args    = coalescelist(var.kubeconfig_aws_authenticator_command_args, local.default_kubeconfig_aws_auth_args)
     aws_authenticator_additional_args = var.kubeconfig_aws_authenticator_additional_args
     aws_authenticator_env_variables   = var.kubeconfig_aws_authenticator_env_variables
   }) : ""
diff --git a/variables.tf b/variables.tf
index a830e20a62..5d8bf33b6a 100644
--- a/variables.tf
+++ b/variables.tf
@@ -193,13 +193,13 @@ variable "workers_additional_policies" {
 }
 
 variable "kubeconfig_aws_authenticator_command" {
-  description = "Command to use to fetch AWS EKS credentials."
+  description = "Command to use to fetch AWS EKS credentials. Defaults to aws CLI (will use eks command)."
   type        = string
-  default     = "aws-iam-authenticator"
+  default     = null
 }
 
 variable "kubeconfig_aws_authenticator_command_args" {
-  description = "Default arguments passed to the authenticator command. Defaults to [token -i $cluster_name]."
+  description = "Default arguments passed to the authenticator command. Defaults to [eks get-token ...]."
   type        = list(string)
   default     = []
 }
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ variable "kubeconfig_aws_authenticator_env_variables" {
 variable "kubeconfig_name" {
   description = "Override the default name used for items kubeconfig."
   type        = string
-  default     = ""
+  default     = null
 }
 
 variable "cluster_create_timeout" {