作る　Ru or U verb?
According to Jisho, this is a godan ru ending verb. But in a Japanese learning source I use a sentence was written this way:

シェフがオレンジジュースを作った。

This sentence treats 作る as a past tense u verb.

This becomes very confusing when trying to learn to identify verb types and how to conjugate them.

Which type of verb is it?

Question

作る　Ru or U verb?
According to Jisho, this is a godan ru ending  verb. But in a Japanese learning source I use a sentence was written this way:

シェフがオレンジジュースを作った。

This sentence treats 作る as a past tense u verb.

This becomes very confusing when trying to learn to identify verb types and how to conjugate them.

Which type of verb is it?

Answer

This is U verb. つくった、つくります。
There are many verbs that ends by RU, but they conjugate as U verbs.　祈る（いのる、いのった）、切る（きる、きった）、but 着る（きる、きた）、折る（おる、おった）、変わる（かわる、かわった）。You need consulate a dictionary to be sure how they conjugate

Answer

Godan=U verb
Ichidan=Ru verb
Godan verb ending in Ru=U verb ending in Ru (because godan/u verbs have different endings)

Your dictionary is correct. You just got confused because verb groups have different names.

Answer

作る is a u verb