diff --git a/cmd/dockerd/config.go b/cmd/dockerd/config.go
index abdac9a7fb..adf26f82a6 100644
--- a/cmd/dockerd/config.go
+++ b/cmd/dockerd/config.go
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ func installCommonConfigFlags(conf *config.Config, flags *pflag.FlagSet) {
 	flags.StringVarP(&conf.Root, "graph", "g", defaultDataRoot, "Root of the Docker runtime")
 	flags.StringVar(&conf.ExecRoot, "exec-root", defaultExecRoot, "Root directory for execution state files")
 	flags.StringVar(&conf.ContainerdAddr, "containerd", "", "containerd grpc address")
+	flags.BoolVar(&conf.CriContainerd, "cri-containerd", false, "start containerd with cri")
 
 	// "--graph" is "soft-deprecated" in favor of "data-root". This flag was added
 	// before Docker 1.0, so won't be removed, only hidden, to discourage its usage.
diff --git a/cmd/dockerd/daemon_unix.go b/cmd/dockerd/daemon_unix.go
index a88bcccc0c..51e56673a0 100644
--- a/cmd/dockerd/daemon_unix.go
+++ b/cmd/dockerd/daemon_unix.go
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@ func (cli *DaemonCli) getPlatformRemoteOptions() ([]libcontainerd.RemoteOption,
 	} else {
 		opts = append(opts, libcontainerd.WithStartDaemon(true))
 	}
+	if !cli.Config.CriContainerd {
+		opts = append(opts, libcontainerd.WithPlugin("cri", nil))
+	}
 
 	return opts, nil
 }
diff --git a/daemon/config/config.go b/daemon/config/config.go
index 6cda223a11..c397f1bc00 100644
--- a/daemon/config/config.go
+++ b/daemon/config/config.go
@@ -198,6 +198,11 @@ type CommonConfig struct {
 	// ContainerAddr is the address used to connect to containerd if we're
 	// not starting it ourselves
 	ContainerdAddr string `json:"containerd,omitempty"`
+
+	// CriContainerd determines whether a supervised containerd instance
+	// should be configured with the CRI plugin enabled. This allows using
+	// Docker's containerd instance directly with a Kubernetes kubelet.
+	CriContainerd bool `json:"cri-containerd,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // IsValueSet returns true if a configuration value
diff --git a/libcontainerd/remote_daemon_linux.go b/libcontainerd/remote_daemon_linux.go
index 5a46afb89d..e3d9640cea 100644
--- a/libcontainerd/remote_daemon_linux.go
+++ b/libcontainerd/remote_daemon_linux.go
@@ -31,6 +31,14 @@ func (r *remote) setDefaults() {
 	if r.OOMScore == 0 {
 		r.OOMScore = -999
 	}
+
+	for key, conf := range r.pluginConfs.Plugins {
+		if conf == nil {
+			r.DisabledPlugins = append(r.DisabledPlugins, key)
+			delete(r.pluginConfs.Plugins, key)
+		}
+	}
+
 	if r.snapshotter == "" {
 		r.snapshotter = "overlay"
 	}
diff --git a/libcontainerd/remote_daemon_options.go b/libcontainerd/remote_daemon_options.go
index d40e4c0c42..f035756ed5 100644
--- a/libcontainerd/remote_daemon_options.go
+++ b/libcontainerd/remote_daemon_options.go
@@ -119,6 +119,7 @@ func (s snapshotter) Apply(r Remote) error {
 // WithPlugin allow configuring a containerd plugin
 // configuration values passed needs to be quoted if quotes are needed in
 // the toml format.
+// Setting the config to nil will disable a built-in plugin
 func WithPlugin(name string, conf interface{}) RemoteOption {
 	return pluginConf{
 		name: name,