diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 88bce561a8..93af871dde 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -331,8 +331,8 @@ distclean: clean
 	rm -rf $$d || exit 1 ; \
         done
 	rm -Rf .sdk
-	if test -f pixman/config.log; then make -C pixman distclean; fi
-	if test -f dtc/version_gen.h; then make $(DTC_MAKE_ARGS) clean; fi
+	if test -f pixman/config.log; then $(MAKE) -C pixman distclean; fi
+	if test -f dtc/version_gen.h; then $(MAKE) $(DTC_MAKE_ARGS) clean; fi
 
 KEYMAPS=da     en-gb  et  fr     fr-ch  is  lt  modifiers  no  pt-br  sv \
 ar      de     en-us  fi  fr-be  hr     it  lv  nl         pl  ru     th \
@@ -532,7 +532,7 @@ installer: $(INSTALLER)
 INSTDIR=/tmp/qemu-nsis
 
 $(INSTALLER): $(SRC_PATH)/qemu.nsi
-	make install prefix=${INSTDIR}
+	$(MAKE) install prefix=${INSTDIR}
 ifdef SIGNCODE
 	(cd ${INSTDIR}; \
          for i in *.exe; do \