diff --git a/package/uboot-tools/uboot-tools.mk b/package/uboot-tools/uboot-tools.mk
index b240789286..380a13d010 100644
--- a/package/uboot-tools/uboot-tools.mk
+++ b/package/uboot-tools/uboot-tools.mk
@@ -111,7 +111,20 @@ endif
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_UBOOT_TOOLS_ENVIMAGE),y)
 
 UBOOT_TOOLS_GENERATE_ENV_FILE = $(call qstrip,$(BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_UBOOT_TOOLS_ENVIMAGE_SOURCE))
-ifeq ($(UBOOT_TOOLS_GENERATE_ENV_FILE):$(BR2_TARGET_UBOOT),:y)
+
+# If BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_UBOOT_TOOLS_ENVIMAGE_SOURCE is left empty, we
+# will use the default environment provided in the U-Boot build
+# directory as boot-env-defaults.txt, which requires having uboot as a
+# dependency.
+# If BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_UBOOT_TOOLS_ENVIMAGE_SOURCE is not empty, is
+# might be referring to a file within the U-Boot source tree, so we
+# also need to have uboot as a dependency.
+ifeq ($(BR2_TARGET_UBOOT),y)
+HOST_UBOOT_TOOLS_DEPENDENCIES += uboot
+
+# Handle the case where BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_UBOOT_TOOLS_ENVIMAGE_SOURCE
+# is left empty, use the default U-Boot environment.
+ifeq ($(UBOOT_TOOLS_GENERATE_ENV_FILE),)
 UBOOT_TOOLS_GENERATE_ENV_FILE = $(@D)/boot-env-defaults.txt
 define HOST_UBOOT_TOOLS_GENERATE_ENV_DEFAULTS
 	CROSS_COMPILE="$(TARGET_CROSS)" \
@@ -119,8 +132,8 @@ define HOST_UBOOT_TOOLS_GENERATE_ENV_DEFAULTS
 		$(UBOOT_SRCDIR) \
 		> $(UBOOT_TOOLS_GENERATE_ENV_FILE)
 endef
-HOST_UBOOT_TOOLS_DEPENDENCIES += uboot
-endif #UBOOT_TOOLS_GENERATE_ENV_FILE:BR2_TARGET_UBOOT
+endif # UBOOT_TOOLS_GENERATE_ENV_FILE
+endif # BR2_TARGET_UBOOT
 
 ifeq ($(BR_BUILDING),y)
 ifeq ($(call qstrip,$(BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_UBOOT_TOOLS_ENVIMAGE_SIZE)),)