I do not know for VPN, I use ssh. It is very simple and does not require any system administration right. Install a proxy (squid) on your Amazon EC2. Install putty if you are on windows and launch it with port forward using the option -L: putty -L 3128:127.0.0.1:3128 user@host
Add the option --proxy-server=127.0.0.1:3128 on you chrome shortcut and that's it.
And even more critical, it doesn't reroute DNS queries, the default is "don't redirect DNS" in Firefox and the change must be done through about:config there's no dialog.
Bad the default isn't different when using socks :(
If you're using a protocol that sits on TCP and you push it over SSH sitting on TCP then it's going to be TCP-over-TCP. Or in other words, for the vast majority of use cases, no.
Add the option --proxy-server=127.0.0.1:3128 on you chrome shortcut and that's it.