diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index dc66703fc9..b0e604f407 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -500,6 +500,14 @@ local-cross: $(CROSS_BUILD_TARGETS) ## Cross compile podman binary for multiple
 .PHONY: cross
 cross: local-cross
 
+# Simple target to check that we can build all binaries for another arch,
+# the resulting binaries are not meant to be usable this is just for
+# testing if it builds, it depends on the caller to set GOOS/GOARCH.
+.PHONY: cross-binaries
+cross-binaries:
+	$(MAKE) CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=$(GOOS) GOARCH=$(GOARCH) \
+		BUILDTAGS="$(BUILDTAGS_CROSS)" clean-binaries binaries
+
 .PHONY: completions
 completions: podman podman-remote
 	# key = shell, value = completion filename
diff --git a/contrib/cirrus/runner.sh b/contrib/cirrus/runner.sh
index 9ffa3b5fed..d69067b025 100755
--- a/contrib/cirrus/runner.sh
+++ b/contrib/cirrus/runner.sh
@@ -310,7 +310,7 @@ function _run_altbuild() {
 function _build_altbuild_archs() {
     for arch in "$@"; do
         msg "Building release archive for $arch"
-        showrun make podman-release-${arch}.tar.gz GOARCH=$arch
+        showrun make cross-binaries GOARCH=$arch
     done
 }