Try adding a role to your Chef Server and put the node in the role. You can specify some role default attributes, such as chef_client interval/splay that control how often the chef-client runs on the node. Here's an example role file:
{
   "name": "web",
   "description": "Web server role.",
   "json_class": "Chef::Role",
   "default_attributes": {
     "chef_client": {
       "interval": 300,
       "splay": 60
     }
   },
   "override_attributes": {
   },
   "chef_type": "role",
   "run_list": ["recipe[chef-client::default]",
                "recipe[chef-client::delete_validation]"
   ],
   "env_run_lists": {
   }
}