I use the head HTML webpart and the Master Page properties of the page template. With the webpart you can add whatever you'd like and where it is on the page template is where it will load in the HEAD section. Typically place the tag you're talking about in the Master Page properties tab. Also note, I've never had an issue placing that meta tag in a webpart or in the Master Page properties. So NEEDING it to be the first element, isn't as critical as one might think, on my sites I have it as the 3rd element after title and the meta UTF tag and all works fine.
You can also utilize a script tag in your master page template layout like so:
<script runat="server">
public override void OnContentLoaded()
{
base.OnContentLoaded();
CMS.UIControls.ContentPage page = this.Page as CMS.UIControls.ContentPage;
if (page != null)
{
page.Header.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl("<meta http-equiv='X-UA-Compatible' content='IE=edge,chrome=1'>"));
page.XmlNamespace += "class=\"no-js\" lang=\"en\"";
}
}
</script>