diff --git a/src/components/chips/js/chipsDirective.js b/src/components/chips/js/chipsDirective.js
index 70d17965bf9..c8f802a7b00 100644
--- a/src/components/chips/js/chipsDirective.js
+++ b/src/components/chips/js/chipsDirective.js
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@
           <div class="md-chip-content"\
               tabindex="-1"\
               aria-hidden="true"\
-              ng-click="!$mdChipsCtrl.readonly && $mdChipsCtrl.selectChip($index)"\
+              ng-focus="!$mdChipsCtrl.readonly && $mdChipsCtrl.selectChip($index)"\
               md-chip-transclude="$mdChipsCtrl.chipContentsTemplate"></div>\
           <div class="md-chip-remove-container"\
               md-chip-transclude="$mdChipsCtrl.chipRemoveTemplate"></div>\